Rise of Heroes: Rise of the Pokemon Princess
by NEBSparky86
Summary: A side story to Rise of Heroes follows Relena Kaiou, a young princess from the Atlantica Islands. Follow her journey through her homeland and beyond.
1. Chapter 1

**Import****notice:**I do not own the characters or story elements of the Pokémon franchise. All credit goes to Nintendo and Game Freak for creating Pokémon. This side story goes with EmperorDraco7's fic Rise of Heroes

**Rise of Heroes: Rise of the Pokémon Princess**

Chapter 1: Escaping Troubles

For most who live in palaces and castles, you would think life was simple as nothing and new exciting would happen. Well you be would be wrong on so many levels. One person seemed to have it rough growing up in a palace and with 16 brothers and sisters. Everyday for her was a struggle just to make it through the day.

"Hey look at the little runt of the palace," said the eighth oldest sibling as she pointed to young six year old Relena Kaiou, the youngest daughter and child of Princess Michiru Delilah Kaiou. "What are doing here? You're not supposed to be living in this palace."

"Yeah, go live with slaves, where you belong," added the third oldest sibling, Adam Fagin Kaiou as he approached Relena grabbing what was in her hands, shoved her on the ground and then kicked her in the gut causing her to curl in a ball as her older sister joined the brother and threw the item at Relena breaking it into pieces.

"Oh I'm sooo sorry," mocked the eighth sibling as she kicked some of the broken pieces on Relena's back and signaled for Adam to kick Relena again and force her on her back. Adam kicked Relena again forcing her on her back which caused pain for her as some of the broken shards were stuck on her back and she screamed in pain as her older siblings laughed in delight.

Luckily for Relena, a few of the palace servants were nearby, came to her aid and shooed the older siblings away. The servants then picked Relena up off the ground gently as they knew that Relena was shy around other people other than her mother and Pokémon that frequently visited in the palace gardens everyday. The servants gingerly and carefully got the broken pieces out of Relena's back and bandaged her wounds.

"Young Miss, you should be careful around your siblings," the head servant Hector Alvarez said to Relena. "They won't stop coming after you until you leave. Although I don't understand why your siblings hate you."

Relena said nothing as she had temporarily locked her words away and was afraid to speak to the servants.

Hector continued, "You should really find something productive to do other than sneaking around the palace like a scared little Rattata. Find something creative and most likely away from them so they won't see you as much." Again Relena said nothing as she looked down on the floor of the servants' break room in despair and with tears rolling down her cheeks. She then began to sob once again like most days when her older siblings picked on her and hurt her. Her sobbing was heard by the servants who were on their break before returning to their work posts.

After sobbing for five minutes, another person had entered the room which caused the servants to drop what they were doing, stand at attention and give the person a slight bow to her as they recognized the person Relena's mother, Michiru Delilah Kaiou.

"What happened this time?" Michiru asked the servants in the break room. "Please tell me what happened to my daughter. It brings pain to my heart to know that one of my children is hurting and none of you can tell me why my youngest child has been injured."

"It was Adam and Helen again today," answered one of the servants who had been there to help escort Relena to the servants break room. "As you can see your highness, they kicked her three times and she had broken fragments lodged in her back. The fragments appeared to be from pottery."

Michiru sighed and shook her head in disappointment for her own children because they picked on their youngest sibling.

"Thank you to those of you who took care of my daughter," Michiru said as she had a small item behind her back.

She then put it in her breast jacket pocket and then took her daughter's hand as they left the servants' break room. Michiru had a look of pain in face as she looked at her youngest daughter; it was hard to raise seventeen children by herself and the father had walked out after Michiru refused to have more children. Once the father had walked out, his own family took Michiru in as part of their family and cut off the son from them and the palace. Michiru shook her head gently, right now her daughter needed her and she took Relena to her favorite place to go. It was the one place the older siblings stopped going to once they became hooked to their... obsession.

Once Michiru and Relena entered the palace garden, many Pokémon saw the young princess and approached her with cheerful smiles on their faces. Relena then saw the Pokémon in garden, let her sad face melt away as she let go of her mother's hand and went to play with the Pokémon in garden. After an hour of playing a new Pokémon appeared as it appeared to be exhausted. This Pokémon happened to come from mountainous areas on Jungle Fortree Island. The color of its feathers was definitely darker than its counterparts in the Orange Islands and Kanto region. This Pokémon definitely spent a lot of time in the tropical climate instead of the mountains. Relena's eyes brightened and had sparkles in them as well.

"Look Mommy, it's an Articuno!" exclaimed Relena as she slowly approached the big bird.

"Be careful sweetie," Relena's mother, Michiru Kaiou, said to her daughter with a hand out in worry.

Relena kept approaching the exhausted Articuno. At first he didn't notice young Relena approaching because he was dazed from flying for four hours non-stop without a break. Once he had shaken his dazed feeling, he noticed Relena approaching it slowly. The Articuno cocked his head in curiosity as he had never seen humans up close or even at a distance. Relena kept approaching the Articuno slowly until she was close enough to where she felt comfortable in front of big bird.

Again the Articuno was curious about the small human child that seemed brave enough to approach him. He stood straight up and then tried to scare her off by letting his size compared to the little human in front of him. But Relena didn't move an inch as she stood still and waited for Articuno to come closer to her. The Articuno did just that as he inched closer to Relena hoping to get better reaction from Relena and hoped that she would run in terror. Relena stood still, still not budging an inch. Articuno then got in Relena's face with loud cries of intimidation and to try and ward off her off. The only time that Relena fell down was when Articuno blew weak gusts of snow at her. But Relena just got back and stood there with a smile on her face as she held out her left to let the Articuno feel her hand. The Articuno was certainly amazed that the human child before him was certainly brave and could need some company. He carefully approached Relena as he had no idea how to interact with humans before. Relena gently stroked the Articuno's left cheek much to his delight and rubbed his stomach too which the Articuno liked as well.

"Mommy, this Articuno likes me," Relena said to her mother as Michiru relaxed a bit as she watched her daughter show the Articuno affection which it had come to enjoy.

"Relena, come here for a second," Michiru requested of her daughter.

Relena looked at her mother and left to her mother's side. The Articuno's face went from being happy to being sad. Relena turned back to him and said reassuringly, "Don't worry big guy; I'll be right back. I promise."

'_Okay_,' Articuno said to Relena as she went to her mother's side, '_please hurry back_.'

Relena went to mother as her mother pulled out an all-red Pokéball from her left breast jacket pocket and gave it to Relena.

"For me Mommy?" Relena asked her mother as she received the all-red Pokéball.

"Uh huh," answered Michiru as she gently set her hand on youngest daughter's head. "It's called a Cherish Ball and it should only be used if the Pokémon wishes to join you."

The Articuno eyed the Cherish Ball and was nervous. He had heard from other Pokémon on Jungle Fortree Island that Pokémon often got captured by humans to be either tools or pets. Articuno wasn't going to be some human's tool or pet. He would be more than happy to be a playmate for the little human, but he wasn't going to be her pet to do tricks for or whatever humans had their Pokémon do for them. Articuno began spreading his wings, lightly flapped them as he was about to fly away.

Relena saw that Articuno was going to fly away and she rushed to get him to stop.

"Wait," Relena called to Articuno, "please don't go. I want you to stay, please stay."

Articuno shook his head and was about to fly away when out of nowhere a ball of mud struck Relena in the face. Michiru turned to her left and saw four of her children tossing mud balls at their youngest sister.

"Stop throwing things at Relena!" Michiru demanded to her older children.

"We're throwing these things at that runt," said Samantha, the oldest daughter Michiru had given birth to, as she threw a metal ball at her youngest sister.

Articuno turned around and saw more humans. This time he noticed they were attacking the little human that was trying to get him to play with her. At least he thought she was trying to get him to play with her until he saw the Cherish Ball in her hand. But now he saw four other humans throwing things at the human who gave him affection and attention and had to do something for her. He turned around and shot an Ice Beam at the objects thrown at Relena.

"Huh, that's Ice Beam!" exclaimed Relena as she saw the mud balls and rocks thrown at her were frozen.

Articuno then let his wings glow with a metallic coating and then sliced the frozen objects into multiple pieces much to Relena's amazement.

"Wow, he knows Steel Wing too," Relena said in awe of the big bird in front of her.

Articuno then spread his wings, sent a gust towards Relena's siblings and let out a cry of intimidation at them too. The siblings dropped what they had in their hands and ran away after seeing the Articuno spread his wings around their youngest sister. Once the siblings left, Articuno to stand up straight up but was pull into a light hug as Relena tried to wrap her arms around him.

"Oh thank you Articuno," Relena said as she hugged the big blue bird. "I wish you could stay longer with me. My siblings are always mean to me and they never leave me alone.

"Please stay with me," Relena pleaded with Articuno as she had tears in her eyes.

Articuno didn't understand why Relena was crying but patted her on her back and tried to comfort her.

'_Um_, _everything __will __be __okay_,' Articuno said as he tried to think of something to tell Relena that would make her calm down.

Articuno looked back to his life on Jungle Fortree Island and saw that he felt lonely. Other Articuno Pokémon were happy as they had mates and were family Pokémon while he lived a carefree life and spent most of his time in the jungles and had even developed a rivalry with a Zapdos who lead a gang of bird Pokémon. All in all, he thought about how lonely he was and how maybe being with the young human wouldn't be a bad idea. '**Not ****to ****mention**,' thought Articuno, '**this ****little ****human ****being ****could ****use ****the ****protection**.'

'_Alright __little __human_,' Articuno said to Relena, '_I_'_ll __stay __with __you_.'

Relena looked up to the Articuno, still having tears in her eyes.

"You'll stay with me?" asked Relena as she looked at the bird Pokémon. Articuno gave her a slight nod acknowledging the answer to her question.

"Oh thank you... Frost," Relena said as she hugged Articuno even more grateful that he would stay with her.

'**Frost**, **eh**?' wondered Articuno. '**I ****like ****having ****that ****name**. **I ****think ****it ****would ****suit ****me ****perfectly**.'

Relena let go of her first Pokémon to be and held out the Cherish Ball for Articuno... I mean Frost to see. She was about ready to throw the Cherish Ball at Frost when he moved in and pressed the button with his beck, allowing it to capture him. After three clicks, Cherish Ball gave one final click signifying that Frost was now Relena's Pokémon.

"Yay! I caught an Articuno!" Relena exclaimed with joy before letting her first and new Pokémon out of it's Pokéball.

Two months later, things appeared to be looking up and the teasing was going down thanks to Relena's Pokémon bodyguard, Frost. Relena had turned seven years old a month after Frost became Relena's first Pokémon. One Michiru could breathe easier a bit and could go and visit with a Pokémon she had as a young woman before getting married to the man who helped her give birth to her 17 children. Michiru, this day, was supposed to meet with her Gardevoir, Sakura, so she could take Sakura's firstborn baby Ralts to Relena. But today would be a day that would shake Michiru and devastate her hard.

On Tropical Market Island, Michiru got off a speed boat and began heading to the outskirts of a medium-sized trading outpost. Sakura had instructed Michiru to wait for her and her two month-old Ralts along the outskirts of the trading post and either she or her Spiritomb 'husband' would bring their daughter to her. Michiru stood at the outskirts for an hour and a half waiting for either Sakura or the Spiritomb with their first child.

'Where could Sakura be?' wondered Michiru as she sat on a crate and tried to make herself comfortable on it. 'It's not like Sakura to be late.'

As Michiru thought those things, she heard a soft cry coming from a baby Ralts and could then make out the silhouette of a rare and shiny Spiritomb. The pair made it's way towards Michiru as the little Ralts let go of the stone her father had hanging on him. She was a shiny Ralts just like mother and had a Sakura flower wreath around neck but had her face looking down to the ground and tears streaming down her face as she was very sad. Michiru saw both of them and noticed the little Ralts was crying.

"What's wrong sweetie?" Michiru asked the little Ralts with compassion and gentleness in voice as she held out her arms to the little Ralts.

'_Mommy was killed by an evil human_,' the little Ralts answered as she held out her arms wanting Michiru to pick her up. '_Daddy_'_s tribe won_'_t let me stay with them either_.'

"Oh you poor thing," Michiru said as she picked up the little Ralts and noticed the wreath of Sakura flowers and then realized that the Ralts's mother was own Gardevoir, Sakura. Michiru then fell to her knees and started welling up with the little Gardevoir in her hands. The little Ralts also cried as well; both of them were affected by Sakura's death. Sakura gave birth to the little Ralts and raised her while her father made every attempt to be there for her when he had time away from his tribe. For Michiru, Sakura had been her companion since she was a little girl living a rough life with abusive parents and going through the foster system, only to land in the relationship with her only husband.

'I hope Relena is doing okay while I'm not there at the palace,' thought Michiru as she looked toward Tsunami Island where the palace was and her youngest daughter was there alone with her 16 older siblings.

'Relena should be fine with Frost protecting her,' thought Michiru as she began her visit with Spiritomb and his Ralts daughter.

Back in the palace on Tsunami Island, Relena searched everywhere for her Pokéballs and Frost, who had gone back to Jungle Fortree Island. What Relena didn't know was that her siblings were already making their move. While Relena was playing with the other Pokémon in the palace garden like she did everyday, the oldest sibling Akita, had gone in swiped all but one Pokéball she had left in her room, including Frost's Pokéball. Frost had temporarily gone back to Jungle Fortree Island to check on Pokémon he had been protecting from a rival Zapdos. Relena was playing with the Pokémon in the palace garden and showing the Cherish Ball she got from Andrew, her fourth oldest brother for her seventh birthday last month. Andrew covered up his embarrassment by patting his younger sister on the head and just saying 'You're welcome.' Andrew searched everywhere for the Cherish Ball he gave Relena by mistake but couldn't find it.

When the Pokémon left the garden, Relena went back to her room, she found it had been trashed and everything strewn around the floor and her ripped up bed. Relena's eyes widened in shock and disbelief that her siblings would do something so despicable to her.

'I'm gonna tell Mom when she get's back from wherever she went to,' thought Relena as she went to confront her siblings as she assumed that Frost would back her up.

As Relena was walking through the halls of the palace, close to the ocean she finally ran into her siblings.

"I wanna know why you guys trashed my room," Relena demanded as she stomped towards her siblings.

"Well, well, the runt speaks," snickered the sixth oldest child, Nathaniel, as he threw a pot at Relena's face.

The pot struck Relena in the face and caused a couple scratches to appear along with one cut across her left cheek.

"Get her," ordered Allison, the second oldest sister.

A couple of Relena's siblings were all too eager and grabbed her by her limbs while Andrew searched the pockets of Relena's dress and jacket and could not find the Cherish Ball he mistakenly gave Relena. Relena certainly could feel the punches her older brothers threw at her. What was even worse was that her sisters scratched, kicked her and tore her dress and jacket showing her bear left leg and bruised right and left arm. After 20 more minutes of beating Relena unconscious, the siblings then threw her into ocean in the hope that she would drown under the dangerous surf.

Relena hit the surf and was drug under where she was unintentionally picked up by a school of Luvdisc that carried her out to open water and then broke away as the school went in another direction. Relena drifted for a good thirty minutes until a Pokémon wrapped a tentacle around Relena's waist and pulled to him and his companions.

'_What is that thing_?' asked one Tentacruel as he examined what his Tentacool subordinate grabbed.

'_Look_'_s like a little human being_,' answered another Tentacruel.

'_In other words it_'_s just a piece of trash_,' said a third Tentacruel. '_Just throw it back in the open sea_.'

The Tentacool threw Relena up and out of the water carelessly as it rejoined its group. Relena about landed back in the ocean until she gently landed on the back of a Mantine.

On Tsunami Island Michiru had returned to the palace with the Ralts daughter of her now deceased Gardevoir, Sakura. The little Ralts clung to Michiru's left arm as they entered the palace grounds. As they entered the palace grounds, Michiru heard the sound of party music and hurried to the source of the party music. When she found the source of the party music, Michiru could not believe what she was seeing as she kept the baby Ralts from seeing what her children were doing.

"What's going on here?" Michiru asked her children.

"Oh, hey mother," said Adam said to his mother. "We're celebrating the fact we got rid of that little runt who thought she had a right to live here."

Michiru widened her eyes at what Adam had said to her and she quickly pieced together what he meant. She knew that her older children were trying to get rid of Relena, but never thought they would actually do it successfully. She then narrowed her eyes with fire in them; she was very angry that they would stoop low as to try and kill her youngest child. She pulled a Pokéball and threw it up in the air.

"Mika, I need your help with some redecoration," Michiru said as as her female Serperior came out of her Pokéball.

Michiru then went to the first table with music CDs and small food on platters. She proceeded overturn the cardboard table causing the CDs and food to collide with each other, the floor and part of the wall. Michiru and her Serperior, Mika, continued to go on a rampage of destruction. The siblings weren't spared from their mother and Mika's wrath. They were hit with extremely fast flung food and CDs that were flung like Frisbees. After twenty minutes of the miniature demolition derby, Michiru and Mika left the makeshift banquet hall upset at Michiru's children.

'_What do we do now that your children seemed to have crossed the line_?' Mika asked her trainer.

"We find my baby girl," Michiru answered Mika. "I know they're lying and Relena is alive."

'_You realize that it could take weeks_, _maybe even months to find young Relena_,' Mika reminded her trainer.

"I know that Mika, but I don't have a choice," Michiru softly countered back. "Relena's my youngest daughter and I'm trying to keep the family together after their father left us."

'_I should remind you that we only have four days before the Pokémon League season starts again_,' cautioned Mika. Michiru gave a slight nod as she and Mika left to find Relena.

Three days had past as Relena had gone through quite a journey while she was unconscious. Most of her journey had been with a school Mantine and Mantyke for two days and nearly lost an arm to a Sharpedo that attacked the school. Fortunately for Relena, she drifted to a pod Wailmer and Wailord. After 12 hours of drifting with the Wailmer and Wailord , Relena was carried away from the pod when a female Kabutops found her lying on the back of the lead Wailord. Kabutops took Relena's prone body and took her to a nearby island that she knew of and knew that Relena would be safe.

On the nearby island, an aqua blue Pokémon stood on the beach as he sensed that his Kabutops servant was coming with her weekly report from around the Atlantica Islands. This Pokémon was known as a Suicune and stood waiting as he noticed Kabutops carrying a human being on her back. The Kabutops explained everything to her Suicune master and set Relena on the beach for Suicune to take.

'Thank you Kabutops,' Suicune said through telepathy, 'you may go.'

'_I hear and obey Master_,' said Kabutops as she slightly bowed to Suicune and left.

'Now young human princess,' Suicune said to the unconscious Relena, 'I will take you in and care for you.'


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:**I don't own the Pokémon characters, storylines or elements. I'm just borrowing them for this fic.

_Previously_:

On the nearby island, an aqua blue Pokémon stood on the beach as he sensed that his Kabutops servant was coming with her weekly report from around the Atlantica Islands. This Pokémon was known as a Suicune and stood waiting as he noticed Kabutops carrying a human being on her back. The Kabutops explained everything to her Suicune master and set Relena on the beach for Suicune to take.

'Thank you Kabutops,' Suicune said through telepathy, 'you may go.'

'_I hear and obey Master_,' said Kabutops as she slightly bowed to Suicune and left.

'Now young human princess,' Suicune said to the unconscious Relena, 'I will take you in and care for you.'

Chapter 2: Humble Beginnings

Suicune had spent most of the evening tending to Relena's wounds from being thrown around the sea and getting a couple scrapes, using some leaves and berries that he had made into a special ointment and put it on Relena's body where he saw any injuries.

'Your wounds will heal with this ointment I have put on them,' Suicune said to the still unconscious Relena. 'The rest is up to you young human.'

Michiru and Mika left Tsunami Island once again. This time it was to find Michiru's missing daughter Relena. The older siblings told her that she and Mika were wasting their time and she should just accept that Relena was dead and that they were glad she was so. This comment earned each of them a slap, that felt as if their cheeks were set on fire, from their mother. Michiru and Mika then set off to find Relena before the Atlantica Islands Pokémon League season started. Michiru searched frantically for four days before having to return to Tsunami Island and had no such success in finding her youngest child. Michiru had tears in her eyes as she returned to Tsunami Island with no success. Mika tried to comfort her trainer and tell that Relena was a survivor and would return home.

In the palace, Relena's siblings were enjoying themselves celebrating their apparent victory in getting rid of their younger sister. As they enjoyed themselves, Frost had returned from Jungle Fortree Island. He searched for his trainer but could not find her. He searched everywhere for her and froze in terror when he came into Relena's room and found it trashed.

'**Was there a struggle in here**?' wondered Frost as he searched for clues in Relena's disappearance.

Relena slowly opened her eyes and found that she was in a cave while hearing the gentle sound of the ocean.

'Where am I?' wondered Relena.

'You are in an ocean-side cave on Trident Island 1,' Suicune answered Relena as he laid in front of Relena.

"But the Trident Islands are uninhabited," Relena said to Suicune as she struggled to get up.

'Take it easy,' suggested Suicune as he gently put his left paw on Relena and set her back on her back. 'You need to heal after the journey you had.'

"Eh, journey?" asked Relena. "What journey are you talking about? I've never left the palace on..."

'Tsunami Island," finished Suicune. 'I'm aware of that. But might I ask how it is you got here on Trident Island 1?'

"I don't know how I got here," began Relena. "The last thing I remember was getting beat up and humiliated by my older siblings and then I felt my body hitting the ocean. That's the last thing I remember."

'I see,' said Suicune. 'Well it seems as if you drifted for three days from Tsunami Island to here on Trident Island 1.'

"So I'll never fit in at the palace," Relena assumed as tears began to run her cheeks. "All I wanted was my siblings to love me and they want me to go along with their thinking and their lifestyle."

'Do you plan to cave into their thinking?' Suicune asked Relena as he gently helped her sit up right.

"No, but I don't know how to get them to at least give me a little bit of respect," Relena answered Suicune.

'Respect is something that must be earned,' explained Suicune. 'Those who seek respect and approval will never get it if they announce that respect is what they desire.'

"I remember Mom telling me that," Relena said as she looked to the side. "I can't believe I forgot about that."

'Don't worry about that,' assured Suicune. 'Once you're fully healed, I'll take you back to the palace on Tsunami Island.'

"Thank you Suicune... or perhaps I should call you Aurora," Relena said with a small smile as she laid back down.

Suicune at first was puzzled at the name Aurora. He wondered why Relena was now calling him Aurora; it was rather an interesting name she came up.

'May I ask why you are calling me Aurora?' asked Suicune.

Relena turned to Suicune with a gentle smile and answered, "Suicune are known as the Aurora Pokémon. I thought it would be befitting for such kind and noble Pokémon as you."

'I feel honored to have such a name as Aurora,' said Suicune, who was now called Aurora. 'Once you've fully healed, I'll take you back to Tsunami Island. I know where the palace is too.'

"Eh? How do you know about the palace?" Relena asked Aurora in surprise.

'I once belonged to one of Takashi's wives,' answered Aurora.

"Takashi? You're talking about Takashi Kaiou, right?" asked Relena as she looked at Aurora.

Aurora then turned to the cave's mouth and answered Relena, 'Yes, Takashi Kaiou was the man who drove me away. I was the Pokémon to his second wife. But I must ask how you know of Takashi Kaiou.'

"Much to my regret," began Relena, "Takashi Kaiou is nothing more than my deadbeat father who tried to divorce and drive my mother out of the palace after she told him that she wouldn't give him anymore children."

'I see he hasn't changed one bit,' deduced Aurora. 'He always was a selfish Grumpig. **Sigh** Well, once a Grumpig, always a Grumpig.'

"I agree with you there," said Relena as she looked in the direction of the cave's mouth. "Nana and Papa kicked him out of the palace without so much as a dime."

'Good to hear that the king and queen took action,' Aurora said as he took pleasure that Relena's father was no longer at the palace.

"Nana and Papa then took in my mother as their daughter," continued Relena. "Unfortunately my siblings began to pick on me once I was old enough for them to swoop in and let the fireworks begin."

'You need a bodyguard,' said Aurora.

"I have one, but he left to go back to Jungle Fortree Island to go check on some Pokémon he had been protecting," explained Relena. "He told me to stay in the palace garden while he was away."

Relena went into detail about what happened before she got jumped and beaten. Aurora listened quietly as Relena told her story to him.

'You definitely need another Pokémon to be your bodyguard,' Aurora said to Relena. 'A Pokémon bodyguard that doesn't live your side.'

"I'd like it if you were my Pokémon," Relena said to Aurora, "and give you the second chance that you rightly deserve."

Aurora turned to Relena with his eyes full of life once again.

'Really?' asked Aurora as he looked at her full of hope.

"Yes really," answered Relena as she reached for the Cherish Ball on the necklace she made. "Luckily Andrew thought this Cherish Ball was just a craft made out of clay and painted."

Relena gave a mischievous grin as she loosened the Cherish Ball and made it bigger to it's normal size. Suicune was surprised to see the Cherish Ball in her hand and readied himself .

'Thank you Jessica,' thought Relena as she thought about her sixth oldest sister.

"With this Cherish Ball, I wish for us to commemorate the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship," said Relena as she held the Cherish Ball out for Aurora to touch.

Aurora gave a slight nod as he touched the button of the Cherish Ball with his paw and let himself get sucked in it. After three shakes and a confirmation click, Relena let her new Pokémon out of the Cherish Ball.

'Now that I'm a new bodyguard,' began Aurora, 'I better make sure that no one is here.'

On Tsunami Island, several of Relena's siblings were still feasting and indulging in unspeakable acts as they thought that Relena was for good. However, one of them walked out of the feast and away from the siblings she was with. That person was the sixth oldest daughter of Michiru Kaiou, Jessica Angela Kaiou.

"Hey where are you going Jess?" asked the eldest child of Michiru Kaiou, Samantha. "We're still having a good time after getting of that little runt whore."

"That so called 'runt whore' is our little sister," snapped Jessica as she slightly turned her head back to her siblings as she glared at them. "You guys thought it would be great to get rid of Relena; but look what happened to our mother. She's gone looking for our youngest sister. We should be helping her."

"That little runt was not our sister and she'll **never** be our sister," said Alex, the fourth oldest brother.

"Why?" snarled Jessica. "Because she doesn't agree to throw away her innocence and do a lot of questionable things that you do?"

"Us?" asked Lena, the second oldest sister, as she chuckled. "What about you? You did the same things we did. So you have no right talking down to us."

"I only did it to make you think I was one of you lowlifes," Jessica lashed in retaliation. "JR and I were waiting for the right time before we gave our bodies to each other."

"So you were never really on our side, huh?" summarized Nathaniel, the eldest son of Michiru and Samantha's fraternal twin brother. "You're just as stupid and foolish as that little slut."

"There's nothing left to say, I'm getting my Pokémon and helping our mother look for her daughter," said Jessica as she walked out of the room.

An hour later, Jessica was carried by her shiny Tyranitar, Argon. She was beaten, bloodied and bruised by the other siblings. Luckily for Jessica, Argon was the kind of Pokémon that knew when his trainer was in danger. Once he found Jessica getting beaten, all it took was a threatening roar and a Hyper Beam used as a warning shot to get the siblings to run in terror. After that he picked up his trainer and took her to her boyfriend's home in the commercial district in the capital. The royal palace was five miles away from the capital and it took Argon an hour to reach the commercial district in Costa del Sol, the capital of the Atlantica Islands region. The big and shiny Tyranitar knew how to get Jason's studio loft and located it no problem.

Three days had passed and Michiru returned to Tsunami Island brokenhearted and in tears after failing to find her daughter Relena, the daughter she loved the most. Michiru got out of the boat with Mika following right behind her and a baby shiny Ralts that had a worried look on her face.

'_Don_'_t worry little Ralts_,' Mika said calmly to the little Ralts. '_We_'_ll find the young trainer you_'_ll be with soon_.'

'_Alright_,' said a downcast little Ralts as she was sitting on Mika's shoulder..

For Relena, three days felt longer as she had stayed in bed the entire time. Now that she was fully healed, Aurora had gone through things that he been storing and looked for articles of clothing that Relena could wear in place of the torn clothes she had worn during her three day journey from Tsunami Island. After finding clothes for Relena to wear, Aurora and his new trainer set off for Tsunami Island.

"Tsunami Island, here we come," Relena said with grin on her face.

'It'll be a three day journey to Tsunami Island,' Aurora informed Relena. 'I just hope that your mother hasn't given up and finally believed that you're dead.'

"I hope so too Aurora," replied Relena as she sighed.

'At any rate, get on my back,' Aurora requested his trainer, 'we'll get to Tsunami Island faster if you're on my back.'

"Okay Aurora, but let me get a few things from your 'treasure cave'," Relena said with a gentle smile.

Relena took fifteen minutes to rummage through Aurora's treasures and found a Unova TM containing the move Scald, a Mystic Water, Shell Bell and a TM for the move Avalanche. She put them in satchel she found in the treasure pile. The satchel was ocean blue with pink and orange hibiscus flowers and a waterproof Pokétech. She also stocked up on Potions, Full Restores, Max Elixirs and eleven ground up Revival Herbs. Once Relena was done stocking up, she joined Aurora, who was waiting patiently for Relena.

'I see you got into my treasure stash,' Aurora said with a smile on his face as Relena got on his back.

"Well I just wanted to find anything we could use on the journey," Relena said as Aurora started dashing off in the direction of Tsunami Island. Unbeknownst to them someone was watching them dash off to Tsunami Island. She was a young woman who wore a pink dress with a lavender belt around her waist, travelling boots and a red ribbon tying up her long ponytail.

"Hmm, she certainly has started learning how to use magic," the young woman said to her husband as she studied Relena.

"Guess we're following them, right?" asked the young man standing next to his wife.

The young man next to the woman sported a soldier like uniform with a metal shoulder pad on his left shoulder, a red cloak around his body and a sword strapped on his back and partially covered by a tattered red cloak.

"Yes we are... Cloud," answered the young woman, whose name was Aeris. "But we're going to follow at a distance."

"You got it Aeris," replied Cloud as he looked to his wife as she walked towards the speed boat they used to get to Trident Island 1.

Two days passed after Relena left Trident Island 1 and Michiru was still down and depressed about losing her daughter. She closed her gym until she was sure that her youngest daughter was truly dead. Her Serperior, Mika, tried to comfort her trainer and assure her that her youngest daughter was still alive. One night Michiru walked out the balcony where Relena had been beaten and thrown into ocean. As she looked out into the open sea, Mika slithered up with the little Ralts sitting on her head. Both of them joined Michiru on the balcony and stared at the ocean too. Within thirty minutes the three of them felt the North Winds blowing gently.

'_If I had to guess_,' began Mika, '_I_'_d say that a Suicune is coming this way_.'

"Yeah, I agree," Michiru said to her Serperior.

'_And that could mean that little Relena is still alive_,' added Mika. '_I_'_d have to guess the Suicune is a day out_.'

"Relena, please be safe and come home," Michiru said as she directed her plea out to the ocean, hoping that her beloved daughter would hear her plea.

The next morning Relena and Aurora got up and had a quick breakfast of Pecha Berries and Moomoo Milk before taking care of checking their supplies. The clothes that Relena was wearing were rather loose on her and wasn't something that a seven year-old girl should wear. Aurora shook his head as he couldn't believe that he gave Relena those clothes. For him it was that or have Relena still wearing her torn and tattered dress she was wearing and the tattered dress looked like it was going to fall off of Relena's body.

Jessica had decided to stay away from the palace after waking up in Jason's studio loft bandaged and in Jason's bed with her clothes being washed and spare clothes laid out on the bed when she woke up. Argon was on the bottom floor because he would've destroyed the stairs trying to follow Jason, carrying his trainer up the stairs bridal style. After two days of searching and getting help from a flock of Ducklett and Swanna to look for Relena. Jessica was about to give up until she felt the North Wind gently blowing and she had a feeling that Relena was still alive. Within the morning hours of the next day, Jessica and Argon went to the docks to wait for Relena and the Suicune lucky enough to be Relena's Pokémon.

Four hours after leaving the lagoon that they stayed the night at, Relena and Aurora made their way to Tsunami Island. After battling a couple of swimmers, Relena decided that they should go the docks where she wouldn't encounter her siblings. In the area of the docks, Aurora spotted a shiny Tyranitar and a slender young woman about 16 years old waving at them.

'Are you expecting any company waiting for us?' Aurora asked Relena as he looked at the slender young woman and her shiny Tyranitar waiting for them at the edge of the dock.

"No I wasn't expecting anyone to wait for us," answered Relena. "But I didn't expect to see Jessica and Argon waiting for us."

Her sixth oldest sister had spotted Relena and was waving waving at her

"Come on Aurora, let's go meet up with Jessica and Argon," Relena requested of her Pokémon.

'Very well,' said Aurora as he complied and changed direction towards Relena's sister and her trusty companion.

Jessica stood there still waving towards Relena hoping that she would go towards them. Once Relena and her Suicune turned towards them, she put her hand down and looked at her partner Argon.

'_It_'_ll be a great relief to your mother that young Relena is still alive and well_,' Argon commented to his trainer.

"I agree Argon," Jessica said as she brushed her orange dyed hair to the side. "Mother will be overjoyed to Relena alive. I know how much she loves Relena.

"I am a bit jealous of Relena, Argon," continued Jessica.

'_Oh_? _How so_?' asked Argon as he cocked his head in interest.

"Once Relena was born," began Jessica, "Mother spent a lot of time with her and raised her not to be like the other siblings."

'_I know you made your mother proud_," interjected Argon.

"Yeah," Jessica began to say before sighing and changing her smile to a frown. "Until JR and I slept with each other. I regret it everyday.

'_That may be true_,' began Argon, '_but you have watched out for your younger sister_.'

"Yeah, yeah you're right," said Jessica. "Thanks Argon."

'_Any time Jess_,' said Argon as Relena and her Suicune got out of water and Relena got off of her Suicune's back

"Jessica, I'm so happy to see you again," Relena said to her older sister as hugged her older sister with all her might.

"I'm happy to see you too little sister," said Jessica as she hugged her youngest sister before looking to Aurora. "I see you found a Suicune to bring you back home. Thank you Suicune, I'll take her home from here."

"Actually Jess, Aurora is my Pokémon," Relena said as she got back on Aurora's back and let Jessica lead the way out of the docks and back to the palace outside of the capital, Costa del Sol.

After walking for three hours, Relena, Jessica and their Pokémon made it back to the palace where they found their mother waiting for them with her Serperior and a baby shiny Ralts sitting on Michiru's shoulder looking at the trainer she would be travelling with.

'_Is that the trainer I will be with_?' the little Ralts asked Michiru's Serperior as she pointed to Relena.

'_Yes_, _she_'_s the trainer you_'_ll be with_,' answered Serperior.

'_She doesn_'_t dress like a princess_,' Ralts whispered to Serperior taking notice of the clothes Relena was wearing. Serperior said nothing as she and Ralts watched Michiru scoop up her youngest daughter and hug her and have tears of joy and relief to see that she was right.

An hour later, Relena was out of the clothes that she borrowed from Aurora's cave on Trident Island 1 and in a red spaghetti strap dress and a pair of sandals on her feet. Relena and Jessica left the palace to take Relena shopping for clothes to replace those that got destroyed by the other siblings. Relena even had a new Pokémon on her team, the little shiny Ralts that was with her mother and her Serperior. It was captured in another Cherish Ball like Frost and Aurora. Speaking of Frost, he returned from searching for his trainer and was relieved to see Relena was still alive. He decided to take a different approach to protecting his trainer by staying back a short distance of 50 feet. Frost would let Aurora stay at Relena's side.

Relena and her sister, Jessica were like little kids in a candy store. However, there were some creative differences on what outfits Relena should get. Relena wanted to wear mostly dresses and very few pairs of pants. Relena definitely got four pairs of biker shorts to wear under her dresses and they were skin tight. As for dresses, Jessica found five dresses that she thought Relena would like. Jessica knew that Relena was really picky with her choice of clothing and hated dresses that showed skin. Shopping for Relena tended to be difficult for Jessica and Michiru as Relena didn't like most of dresses that were shown to her. Some of them had become distasteful for her as they were starting to show skin. Jessica showed Relena the five dresses she thought her younger sister might like. Relena went through the dresses and found three dresses that she loved. As Relena was about to give Jessica back the remaining two dresses, she noticed another dress tucked away in between both dresses. The tucked away dress was definitely a dress that she liked and it was her favorite color, which made Relena dig it out. Relena held the aqua blue dress close to her body. Relena went into the dressing room and put the new dress on her, twirled around as she checked to make sure the dress fit her and that she looked good in it.

"What do you think Aurora,... Michiru?" Relena asked the two Pokémon that came into the shop with her and Jessica as she modeled the dress for them.

'_Michiru_?' Ralts asked her new trainer in confusion. '_Why are you naming me after your mother_?'

"I like the name Michiru," Relena explained to Ralts. "I also wanted to name you after the one who brought you into my life."

'_Thank you_,' said Ralts as she slightly bowed to her trainer as she now took the name Michiru. '_I like the dress you_'_re wearing_. _I think it suits you_.'

'I agree with Michiru,' added Aurora, 'it definitely suits you.'

Jessica then entered the dressing rooms with an aqua green jacket that she thought Relena would like just like the dress.

"Here Relena, there's a jacket that would go perfectly that dress," Jessica said as she gave Relena the jacket before making a slight grin.

Relena received the jacket and put it on. Michiru and Aurora definitely liked the jacket and thought it went perfectly with the dress.

"I think we have a winner," Jessica said with a smile on her face.

'I think so too,' agreed Aurora. Michiru even gave a slight nod of approval too as well as Argon.

"You know little sis, that dress and jacket are really special," Jessica explained to Relena. "They grow with you as you get older and start looking a little more attractive."

"Really? Awesome!" exclaimed Relena. "It'll save me money in the long run and I won't have to buy so many clothes as I get older."

Relena tried on the other dresses. One dress was like the satchel she got from Aurora's cave. This dress went down to Relena's ankles and was ocean blue with orange and pink hibiscus print on it. Jessica knew that Relena loved dresses with tropical floral print on them and made sure they weren't revealing like most dresses in the shop. Relena found the dresses she wanted to buy and Jessica paid for them. The only expensive dress she bought Relena was the dress that would grow as she grew up. The store owner was a master at making dresses and knew how to make clothes that grew along with the wearer and knew Jessica well as a best friend and was Jason's older sister. After Jessica paid for the dresses, Relena went back to the dressing rooms and changed into the new outfit Jessica designed for her. She was eager to put on the new dress and jacket and put them on quickly. As Relena stepped out of the dressing room in her new dress and jacket, Jessica gave her younger sister a cool thumb's up approval. Jessica then approached Relena and put her hair in a beautifully braided ponytail and set a ribbon to hold the ponytail in place at both ends. The color of the ribbons matched her jacket perfectly and it was pleasing to Relena's two Pokémon in the store as they liked her new look.

"One last place to take you to," Jessica said as she hurried Relena out of the dress shop, "and that's to get you a few cute swimsuits."

"Alright," said Relena as she was reluctant to leave the dress shop.

Jessica took her younger sister to a shop that sold swimsuits and other summer apparel that was close to Jason's studio loft. The French doors opened and the shop staff looked to see one of their favorite customers returned.

"Welcome Miss Kaiou," the staff said as they slightly bowed to Jessica.

Jessica returned the slight bow with one of her own and then looked for Relena only to see her outside looking at what the shop was selling. What Relena saw made her cringe as she saw a lot of two piece swimsuits and she didn't like them because they showed too much of a girl's body and she wasn't going to do that.

'_Are you okay Master_?' Michiru asked Relena. '_You look worried about going into the shop_.'

"I'm a little nervous about going in the shop, Michiru," Relena answered her Ralts. "And please don't call me Master. I don't like being called Master; just call me by my name. I'd prefer that."

'_Okay Relena_,' responded Michiru before turning to see Jessica.

"Are you coming in Relena?" Jessica asked her younger as she stuck her head out of the door.

Two hours passed and the staff of the summer apparel shop were not anywhere close to what Relena wanted.

"I'm sorry but I told you that I do not want any two piece swimsuit," Relena said to the shop staff.

"But all the girls your age wearing them," said one staff as she tried to appeal to Relena by using that argument. "It'll look cute on you."

Jessica knew she would lose but tried to join and showed Relena a two piece that at least covered her body.

"Why not try this two piece swimsuit, Relena?" Jessica asked with sweat drop on her head and a small smile.

Relena was about ready to scream, but instead balled her fist, closed her and randomly swung it at someone. That unlucky person just happened to be Jessica as Relena's fist hit Jessica in the gut. Jessica certainly felt Relena's punch and gritted her teeth to keep from yelling in Relena's ear and to show she could take the pain. Jessica doubled back and returned the two piece back to the rack she found it. Jessica held her gut for a moment and caught her breath. She then went back to searching for one piece swimsuits that she thought her youngest sister would like. The shop's staff backed at first backed away when they saw Relena punch one of their biggest patrons. Once Relena had calmed down, they went back to trying to get Relena to cave in and still Relena would not budge or cave in. Jessica managed to find a couple of one piece swimsuits that she knew her youngest sister would love. She also went to the back counter where she met with another lady on the shop's staff who looked bored. Jessica then lightly tapped the bell on the counter to get lady's attention.

"Ah Jessica, you're here," the seamstress said to Jessica. "I have that special order you asked for."

The seamstress then hands Jessica a bag with her special order.

"I'm glad that your youngest sister isn't one to budge and cave into peer pressure," said the seamstress.

Jessica opened the bag and took out one piece swimsuit to examine it.

"This looks like my middle school swimsuit," Jessica said to the seamstress as she looked at the swimsuit. "But I can still fit in it and looks sexy on me."

"Well this swimsuit will grow as the young lady gets older and it'll help her look just as sexy as you maybe," the seamstress said with a slight chuckle.

The swimsuit that Jessica had ordered was a one piece swimsuit that had a skirt on it with an aquamarine blue background and her favorite orange and pink hibiscus print designed all over the swimsuit and even on the skirt part.

"Well I know Relena will definitely love this swimsuit," Jessica said as she put the swimsuit away in the bag. "I thank you for your help. It isn't easy shopping for a 7 year-old girl with very picky tastes in clothing."

"It's not a problem," the seamstress replied gently as she watched the rest of the staff trying to over and over to get Relena to buy a two piece swimsuit. "But I wouldn't say that young Relena has picky tastes per say. I would say that she has 'proper' tastes in clothing. But I'll talk with my staff about this incident."

"Thank you," said Jessica. "Now I better go and pay for these swimsuits before someone loses a tooth."

The seamstress chuckled and gave a slight nod of agreement as she watched Jessica show Relena the one piece swimsuits she found and even had specially ordered for her. After trying them on and modeling for Jessica and her Pokémon, Jessica paid for the swimsuits and took her youngest sister home to the palace where their mother was waiting for them with gentle smile and Mika, her Serperior.

After telling her mother about the day she had with Jessica, Relena returned to her room and found the mess had been cleaned up and the furniture had either been repaired or replaced. Before the day was done, Jessica stopped by Relena's room with two gifts for her.

"Eh, these are for me?" Relena asked Jessica in surprise.

"Uh huh, these are an Amulet Coin and a Lucky Egg, which should help a lot in raising your little Ralts," explained Jessica. "The Amulet Coin doubles the money you make and the Lucky Egg increases the amount of experience by half."

"Thank you Jessica," Relena said as she hugged Jessica.

"You're welcome," replied Jessica as she hugged Relena back. "But I think the other siblings are going to try and ambush you."

Relena gave a slight and said, "Bring'em on, I'll take each and every one of them down."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Pokémon characters, storylines or elements. I'm just borrowing them for this fic.

_Previously_:

"Uh huh, these are an Amulet Coin and a Lucky Egg, which should help a lot in raising your little Ralts," explained Jessica. "The Amulet Coin doubles the money you make and the Lucky Egg increases the amount of experience by half."

"Thank you Jessica," Relena said as she hugged Jessica.

"You're welcome," replied Jessica as she hugged Relena back. "But I think the other siblings are going to try and ambush you."

Relena gave a slight and said, "Bring'em on, I'll take each and every one of them down."

Chapter 3: Surprise and Ambush Attacks lead to Evolution

The next morning after going clothes shopping, Relena decided to sleep in a little bit longer after being away from home for about week. It was something Relena was going to take advantage of and no one was going to stop her from sleeping in. Relena had gone through a rough patch, at least that's what she thought as she was unaware that most of her siblings were already planning to make life for Relena living hell. Aurora and Michiru, her Ralts, were lying on Relena's bed with Relena while Frost was on the floor out like a light. Aurora was at Relena's side as she had Michiru in arms much like a stuffed animal. Michiru took pleasure in sleeping in Relena's bed instead of being in her Pokéball The three Pokémon and their trainer felt at peace as they were asleep.

"Okay, you're sure we can get rid of that little whore?" Amanda asked her younger brother Stephen.

"Trust me, it'll work," answered the said brother. "We just gotta hard hit her hard, take the Pokémon away, and beat her up."

"Yeah, she has no right to have anything until she comes around to our thinking," agreed Justine, the tenth oldest sister.

"So let's get in there and put her in her place," said Adam as he set his hand on the doorknobs.

Aurora already had his eyes open and looking at the door as he was lying on the end of Relena's bed. As the doorknob was turning, Aurora lifted his head off the bed and aimed a well placed Scald attack, which he learned recently, at both doorknobs.

"**YEOW**!" screamed Adam from the other side of the doors.

Adam screaming woke up Relena and Michiru from their sleep as well as Frost as he quickly stood up and hopped to get closer to the end of Relena's bed. Relena's Ralts, named after Relena's mother, quickly woke up and straightened herself. Relena woke up, but was still in her bed.

"What are doing in my room?" demanded Relena as she glared at Adam. "Get out of my room! Mother won't be happy with guys."

"Shut up you little brat," snarled Amanda. "You don't tell us what to do. This **our** home, not yours."

"That's right," Nathaniel said as he kicked down the door. "Unless you start getting smart about your place in this world, we're taking everything you own from you."

"Not without a fight," countered Relena before looking to her Pokémon. "Are you guys ready?"

'_Ready_,' answered Frost as he took a fighting stance.

'I won't let them hurt you,' replied Aurora.

'_I_'_m ready too_,' said Michiru as she put the Lucky Egg around her neck.

"You're going down little brat," snarled Gerald, the third oldest brother. "Go Golbat! Put that little brat little down and her little Pokémon." Gerald's Golbat screamed in to do as his trainer ordered him to do.

'_Let me take this one_,' requested Michiru. '_I inherited the knowledge of a few of my mother_'_s attacks_._ Like Psychic_, _Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball_.'

"Awesome," Relena said to Michiru as she was ready to tackle Gerald's Golbat head on. "What about from your father?"

Michiru didn't answer but began to extend her shadow under Golbat and attacked him from behind causing the Golbat to flinch and turn to see what hit him.

"Sweet, that's Shadow Sneak," observed Relena as she was amazed at her Ralts's attack. "That's a wicked attack."

'_Thank you_,' Michiru said with a smile her face.

"Now use Shadow Sneak and Thunderbolt on Golbat," ordered Relena.

'_Gladly_,' said Michiru as she extended her shadow and charged up to use her Thunderbolt attack.

"Golbat! Behind you!" exclaimed Gerald in a vain attempt to warn his Pokémon. Gerald's Golbat turned around only to see Michiru ready to strike and her Shadow Sneak was more than enough to give her an advantage.

'_Too late_,' Michiru said coldly as she let loose her Thunderbolt and it went in the Golbat's mouth which both shocked and surprised the Golbat.

Gerald's Golbat felt the electric energy surging through his body and fell in defeat with circles in his eyes.

"What the?" demanded Gerald in shock and disbelief.

Michiru observed the reaction from Gerald and studied his emotions and posture.

'_Relena_, _it seems that your brother made a serious mistake_,' Michiru whispered to her trainer. '_He forgot to heal his Pokémon_. _We should take advantage of it_.'

"Agreed," Relena whispered back to her Ralts.

Gerald recalled his Golbat and sighed at his foolishness.

"You stupid idiot!" Samantha snarled at Gerald. "You should've healed your Pokémon before we came to deal with our little problem!"

"I can't help it if you rushed me and didn't give me enough time to get my Pokémon healed," protested Gerald.

Samantha then appeared to be four stories tall to Gerald as he had a sweat drop on his head and a horrified look on his face.

"Uh... um... you're right, it is my fault," Gerald stammered nervously.

Samantha then returned to normal with an evil grin on her face, which made Relena laugh.

"That was really funny Samantha," Relena said to her older sister.

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week," responded Samantha as she acted like an actress

"Uh Sam, shouldn't we be getting back to the task at hand?" asked Nathaniel.

"Oh right," Samantha answered as she had sweat drop on her forehead.

"Get 'em Aurora," Relena said as her voice turned ice cold hoping to take advantage of this momentary distraction.

'With pleasure,' replied Aurora as he charged forward towards Relena's older siblings.

"Now Aurora use Scald at my siblings," commanded Relena.

'Not what I had in mind, but here it goes,' Aurora said to himself before aiming his Scald close to Relena's siblings getting their attention and forcing them back out of her room.

"Thanks Aurora, that's exactly what I wanted you do," Relena said to her bodyguard. "Now to get out of bed and put on that new dress Jessica got me."

"Huh, wha?" Samantha asked dumbfounded. "Jessica bought you new clothes?"

"Yes," answered Relena. "One of the dresses she bought me might become my favorite."

Samantha thought for a minute and decided.

"Sorry, but you're not gonna get the chance do that," Samantha said coolly. "Now go Abomasnow! Let's put this runt down."

'_Gladly_,' replied Abomasnow.

'_Alright_, _time for me to step in_,' said Frost as he charged forward and flew to face Abomasnow.

"How dumb can you be?" Nathaniel asked Frost as he prepared his own Pokéball to release a Pokémon inside of it. "Medicham, you're on my friend." A gray Pokémon with pink leggings came out and eyed Frost.

'_Do not underestimate me_,' the Medicham said to Frost, '_or you just might find your wings will get clipped_.'

'_Like I haven_'_t heard that one before_,' countered Frost. '_Enough talking_, _on to brawling_.'

'_For once we_'_re in agreement_,' sneered Medicham before he took a knee and quickly regained his balance hoping that no one saw him do that.

'_Relena_, _it seems two of your brothers are idiots_,' Michiru said to her trainer. '_Let me take that foolish Pokémon down_.'

"Go for it Michiru," responded Relena. "You know what to do against Medicham."

'_I know_,' whispered Michiru. '_My mother taught me everything I know about Pokémon_.'

"Awesome," Relena said with a smile on her face as Michiru used her Shadow Sneak attack on Medicham as it was more focused facing Frost.

Michiru gave a smirk as she extended her shadow under Medicham and attacked it from behind.

'_Say good night low life_,' Michiru said lough enough for Medicham to hear her and turn around too late.

Medicham was struck by Michiru and fell on his stomach with circles in his eyes.

Samantha saw that another one of her brothers had not healed their Pokémon and Relena had taken advantage of another brother's failure to heal their Pokémon before trying to put Relena in her place. She was not happy with them but continued to focus on facing her youngest sister.

"You may have taken out two of our Pokémon," began Samantha, "but you won't get so lucky next time."

'_I wouldn_'_t_..._ count on_... _that_,' Michiru said before she started to glow brightly and then begin to change shape as she was engulfed by bright soft white light.

Frost and Aurora turned to see their younger companion and were startled to see Michiru was changing shape and engulfed in a bright soft white light.

'It appears that little Michiru is evolving,' Aurora said to his counterpart Frost.

'_Agreed_,' replied Frost as he and Aurora watched Michiru change shape.

"Kirlia," said Michiru after the light show had ended and she had grown into the next stage of her evolution.

"Yay!" exclaimed Relena as hugged her Psychic Pokémon lightly. "You evolved into Kirlia! Now things will get better for us."

'_I certainly hope so Relena_,' said Michiru as she hugged her trainer back before facing the opponents Frost and Aurora were getting ready to face Relena's siblings as they were serious about trying to hurt their trainer.

"Frost take on Abomasnow," Relena ordered her Articuno as she pointed Frost to Samantha's Abomasnow.

'_I_'_ve been waiting for some action_!' exclaimed Frost as he eagerly flew towards Abomasnow after making sure Relena had her blanket wrapped around most of her body to keep her warm.

'_Why did you wrap that blanket around Relena's body_?' Michiru asked Frost.

'Is it obvious Michiru?' Aurora asked the recently evolved Kirlia. 'Don't you know about Abomasnow's ability?'

Michiru thought about it for a minute and then a light blub clicked on for her.

'_Oh yeah_,_ that's right_,' said Michiru as she suddenly remembered Abomasnow's ability. '_It_'_s ability is Snow Warning_.'

"Snow Warning, that causes a blizzard to start, right Michiru?" Relena asked her Kirlia.

'_Yes_, _that_'_s right_,' answered Michiru. '_We don't want you to freeze to death_.'

'_I hope you_'_re ready to be grounded because I_'_ll make sure that you get your wings clipped_,' Abomasnow taunted Frost.

Frost rolled his eyes and shook his head in annoyance.

'_I_'_ve heard the same insults on Jungle Fortree Island and they_'_re getting really old_,' Frost countered in a annoyed tone.

'_What_'_s wrong_?' challenged Abomasnow. '_Afraid your feathers_ _will get dusty and dirty and in a battle_?

'_Here_'_s __your __answer_,' Frost answered as his wings glowed with sliver energy and rapidly charged in on Abomasnow and struck him in the gut causing the Abomasnow to double back as Frost's Steel Wing attack and unleashed a blizzard due to his Snow Waring ability.

"Alright Abomasnow, use your Wood Hammer attack on Articuno," ordered Samantha.

'_My name is Frost_,_ young human_,' said Frost as he disappeared in the snowy blizzard and evading Abomasnow's Wood Hammer easily.

"Awesome, Frost has the ability Snow Cloak," observed Relena as she had Michiru join in her under the blanket to stay warm. "I feel blessed to have such wonderful Pokémon with me."

'_And we feel blessed to have you as our trainer_,' replied Michiru as she had a smile on her face. Frost gave Relena a slight nod in agreement to Michiru's statement before disappearing in the blizzard again. Argon watched silently then ran back to his trainer.

Not far from Relena's room, Jessica and her fiancee Jason were asleep in each arms peacefully until they heard the echoed scream of pain from Adam, Jessica's older brother.

"Wonder what ol' Teeter Dance did this time to get hurt," Jason said sleepily.

"Don't know, don't care," Jessica croaked like a Poliwrath in her sleep. "All I wanna do is sleep in peace until lunchtime."

"Works for me," Jason said still sleepily.

The engaged couple were asleep peacefully once again for awhile until they heard more echoed sounds, this time the sounds of battle and thundering charge of Jessica's shiny Tyranitar, Argon.

"Tell me that isn't Argon," Jason sleepily whined, hoping that Jessica's Tyranitar was going to ruin their sleep.

"That's Argon alright," Jessica sleepily said in a slightly irritated tone. "He better have a good reason for thundering down the hallway and about to throw open the door like the palace was on fire."

Sure enough Jessica's Tyranitar, Argon, threw open the French doors in a panic as Jessica described.

"This better be a good reason for waking both of us up Argon," Jessica said as she finally opened her eyes and looked to her shiny Tyranitar as he caught his breath.

'_Your siblings are at it again_,' Argon said in a slight panic before taking another gulp of fresh air.

"What do you mean, they're at it again?" Jason asked his fiancee's Tyranitar.

'_The siblings are trying to get rid of young Relena again_,' answered Argon.

"What?" asked Jessica as she was startled by what Argon had told her. "Damn it Samantha. This time you've gone too far."

Argon produced a belt of five Pokéballs, including his own and tossed it Jessica, who caught it with one hand as she got out of bed quickly.

"Come on Jason, let's get moving," Jessica said to her fiancee as threw her pillow at Jason.

Jason was hit by the pillow and got up, not because he wanted to but because he knew that Jessica cared about her younger sister. Argon produced another belt of Pokéballs and tossed to Jason, which he caught in mid-air.

"I dunno how you found my Pokéballs, but you're really good Argon," Jason to his fiancee's shiny Tyranitar.

'_Thank you_,' said Argon as he turned to follow his trainer. '_Now let_'_s go follow Jess_,_ she needs our help_.'

"Right," agreed Jason as the two followed Jessica.

The trio run through the hall to reach Relena's room only to be met by some of Jessica and Relena's siblings.

"Move it Angelo and Beatriz," Jessica ordered the twelfth and thirteenth oldest siblings.

"Sorry, but you don't get to give orders around here," said Beatriz the twelfth oldest child. "You lost that right when you turned on us."

"For the love of Arceus, you guys need to stop this stupid crusade and just accept the fact Relena is your sister and that she's not going anywhere," Jessica said as she tried to reason with her younger siblings.

"Like she told you, you lost the right to tell us what to do when you turned on us," Angelo said as he readied a Pokéball and tossed it at Jessica, Jason and Argon. "Go Rampardos, we're taking down these nobodies!"

"What an idiot," scoffed Jessica. "Alright Argon, let's put these guys down."

'_Ready __and __waiting __for __your __instructions_,' replied Argon as he took a combat stance.

"We'll make sure you never get to that little slut," said Beatriz as she threw her Pokéball in hopes to stop Jessica. "Alright let's go Galvantula. Time to put this low traitor down."

'_It_'_s about time we had some action around here_!' Beatriz's Galvantula exclaimed doing away with her bored posture.

"Well, you ain't getting the chance Galvantula," Jason said as he suddenly felt awake and ready battle his way through to Relena. "Go Gigalith!"

"What a joke that Pokémon is," mocked Beatriz. "Galvantula, use Electro Ball!"

"Autotomize Gigalith," countered Jason as his shiny Gigalith shed part of his body and became lighter. "Now dodge that Electro Ball and counter with Power Gem."

Gigalith dodged the Electro Ball and sent a ray of light that looked like gemstones at Galvantula.

"Use Agility and then Giga Drain," ordered Beatriz. Galvantula did as she was told as she increased her speed and prepared to launch her Grass-type attack on Gigalith.

"Autotomize again Gigalith," ordered Jason, "and use Earth Power."

'_Gladly_,' said Gigalith as he shed another part of his body to become faster again. '_Now let_'_s turn up the heat_.' Gigalith made the ground erupt and caused damage to Galvantula.

'_You_'_ll have to better than that_!" exclaimed Galvantula as she recovered used her Giga Drain attack and drained Gigalith of some of it's energy and healing itself.

'_I can take what you_'_ve got_,' countered Gigalith as he shook off the loss of energy.

"Power Gem, one more time Gigalith," said Jason as he noticed that Galvantula wasn't fully healed and had a bruise on her left front leg and on her face.

'_You got it_,' Gigalith replied as he fired once another ray of gemstone lights at Galvantula causing critical damage and knocking her out with circles in her eyes.

"Damn you," snarled Beatriz.

"I knew you were weak Beatriz," snickered Angelo as he turned to face Jessica. "Now it'll be me and Rampardos."

"Oh shut up Angelo," snarled Jessica. "Argon, let's put this punk in his place."

'_I_'_ve been waiting for chance to do that_,' Argon said as he was quick to charge at Rampardos.

"Argon, use Water Pulse," ordered Jessica.

Argon gladly sent an orb of pulsating water at Rampardos that struck dead on and dealt a lot of damage to Rampardos causing it to double back and become confused.

"No Rampardos!" exclaimed Angelo.

"Argon, Earth Power and Brick Break," Jessica said coldly.

'_With pleasure_,' Argon replied with ice his voice as he was just as cold as he used the same Ground-type attack the Jason's Gigalith used against Beatriz's Galvantula. Rampardos was struck hard with the Ground-type attack causing more damage to her.

"No! Rampardos!" exclaimed Angelo as he watched his confused Rampardos get hit a swift, yet powerful chop right to his groin.

Rampardos managed snap out of his confused state right as he was hit with a cheap shot. He shirked in pain as he felt Argon using his Brick Break right where he didn't want to get hit.

'_That_'_s gonna hurt for week_,' Rampardos said in pain as he was lifted off the ground for three inches and then fell on his back with circles in his eyes.

"You were saying Angelo," snapped Beatriz as Angelo recalled his only Pokémon that had fallen against Argon.

"Shut up Beatriz," sassed Angelo as he glared at his sister.

'_Out of our way you two lowlifes_,' ordered Argon. '_Otherwise I_'_ll forget my manners and use my Hyper Beam at you_.'

"You wouldn't," Angelo stammered at Argon trying to feign courage.

"Does Argon look like he's kidding?" Jessica challenged Angelo and Beatriz.

Both siblings shook their heads 'no' and let the trio proceed. As they made their way to Relena's room, they were once again stopped by another set of siblings. This time it was Jessica's fourth and fifth older sisters who were identical. Another struggle began but this the identical twins were a lot stronger and better prepared for the most famous duo in Sol Palace. Jason even had a hard enough time against one of them, Anastasia.

"You'll have to do better than that," taunted Anastasia. "Besides, did you honestly think I wouldn't see that coming?"

"Damn it," snarled Jason as his shiny Heatran has was struggling against Anastasia's Cradily. "I thought Cradily would be weak against Fire attacks."

"You're right about that," explained Anastasia in a somewhat evil taunting tone, "but Cradily is also part Rock."

For combatants, things were taking a turn for the worse and would irritate the servants as they had had enough were going to take things into their hands.

As the servants began to make their move, Michiru was at her gym awaiting her first challenger to arrive. She was unaware that her children were fighting amongst each other again. As she waited for her first challenger, she tended to her own.

'_You nervous Michiru_?' asked Mika, her shiny Serperior.

"A little bit," Michiru answered her Pokémon with an assuring smile. "It's my third year as a gym leader for the Atlantica Islands Pokémon League."

'_I was surprised to hear that guy_,_ Mr_. _Goodshow_,_ wanted to introduce the Pokémon league here in the Atlantica Islands_,' said Mika.

After two hours of constant battling, the Pokémon of every Kaiou child were starting to get worn out from the constant battling. Things seemed to be going in the favor of the older siblings and Relena's Pokemon were on the verge of collapse from exhaustion.

'_I won_'_t_... _let you hurt_..._ my trainer_,' Michiru said as she panted, trying to avoid falling off the bed.

"What the?" asked a startled Adam as his Pokémon were attacked from behind and was hit from behind by a powerful Bubblebeam from a Crawdaunt.

Several of the other siblings that had been defeated, hurried to get their Pokémon back to fighting shape suddenly found themselves and their Pokémon being overwhelmed by the servants and their Pokémon. Some of the siblings that were in Relena's room trying to overwhelm Relena were distracted as they heard their brothers and sisters getting overpowered by the servants. Jessica, Jason and Argon finally made it to Relena's room to help her out. As the trio entered the room, Argon noticed Michiru, Relena's Kirlia, begin to glow.

'_I see that little Michiru evolved into Kirlia_,' observed Argon, '_and she_'_s gonna evolve into her final evolved form_,_ Gardevoir_.'

Samantha looked to Argon as she heard what the Pokémon of her eighth youngest sibling said and became alarmed. She knew what a Gardevoir could do if their trainer was danger.

'_I_... _will protect_..._ my trainer_,' Michiru said she panted but stood up, right as a few servants came into the room.

Michiru then began to glow once again as she got taller, slender and changed shape once again. Michiru's evolution was a spectacle to see despite the fact that most of the witnesses had covered their eyes in order to avoid being blinded. Once Michiru's evolution was complete, everyone looked at what they saw and were in awe of Michiru as gazed at everyone in the room and then looked to her trainer with concern in her eyes. Relena on the other hand had sparkles in her eyes as she dropped her blanket and hugged her newly evolved Gardevoir.

"Oh Michiru, you've finally evolved into a Gardevoir," Relena said happily with a smile on her face as she hugged the shiny Embrace Pokémon and dropped the blanket that was wrapped around her body. "This makes me very happy."

Michiru returned her trainer's hug with one of her own and a gentle smile on her face.

'_I_'_m glad that you_'_re happy_,' replied Michiru. '_I will make sure that you are safe from harm_.' Michiru then glared at Samantha and the other siblings that were fighting to get rid of her trainer.

Samantha picked herself up and any of her other siblings that had joined and began pulling them out of Relena's room.

"Why are we leaving this runt's room?" Nathaniel asked Samantha.

"Because I don't wanna get caught in a miniature black hole created by a Gardevoir," answered Samantha.

"Crap, I forgot about that," replied Nathaniel as he had a sweat drop. "We'll get rid of you yet you little slut."

Michiru sent a death glare at Nathaniel when he called her trainer a slut. Most of the other siblings cleared out except for Jessica who went to give Relena a hug.

"I'm glad that you're safe and to see you finally have a fully evolved Gardevoir," Jessica said as she wrapped her baby sister in light embrace. "Mom will be proud to see you have a Gardevoir."

"Thank you Jess," responded Relena as hugged Jessica back.

As things were calming down in Sol Palace, a young boy who had just turned 7 years old got off a boat that came from Tropicorn Island as he had in his possession a signed form that his own father was too eager to sign in order to get rid of him.

"I can't believe that my own father would drive away from home," the young boy, Richie Anderson, said to himself as he walked around and explored Tsunami Island and Costa del Sol. "Oh well at least I can get a fresh start here on Tsunami Island.

"Are you sure?" Michiru asked her sixth child, Jessica.

"Yeah Mom, I'm sure," answered Jessica. "They're really gonna hurt Relena if we don't get her outta the palace for her own safety."

Michiru, Relena and Jessica's mother sighed as she closed her eyes as she made the difficult choice that she didn't want to make.

"Can you can get a few things for Relena?" Michiru asked her sixth daughter, Jessica. "I want her to at least call home and have some things to remind her about us."

"I know just to what to get," Jessica said with a smile. "I'll be back in time to make sure we send her off.

"Argon," Jessica said to her shiny Tyranitar, "go tell Relena to pack some clothes... and her favorite swimsuit too."

'_Is there a reason why I have to request this of young Relena_?" Argon asked his trainer.

"Yes Argon," answered Jessica. "Our siblings still plan to hurt Relena and we have no choice but send her on her way on her Pokémon journey much earlier than Mother and I were planning. We have to make sure that she leaves tonight."

'_Very well Jessica_,' Argon said as he slightly bowed to his trainer. '_I will ask Relena to begin packing_. _Although I don_'_t think she_'_ll like this_.'

"I don't like having to send my baby girl away from home much earlier than I planned either, Argon," Michiru said to her daughter's shiny Tyranitar. "But I have to make sure that she stays safe."

'_It will be done Your Highness_,' Argon said to Michiru as bowed to the mother of his trainer.

"I can't believe Mom and Jessica wanted to send me away from Sol Palace," Relena said as she took one last look at her home and then looked towards Costa del Sol on Aurora's back.

'Your mother and sister were greatly worried about your safety,' Aurora said to his trainer sitting on his back. 'What were they supposed to do? Were they supposed to let you stay in the palace and continue to be tormented by your brothers and sister?"

"I guess not," answered Relena as she, Aurora and her two other Pokémon in their Pokéballs traveled into Costa del Sol.

It was then that the young boy Richie Anderson turned at the corner and in Aurora's path. Richie then looked and saw galloping towards him and couldn't dodge in time as he was sent flying into a street vendor's jewelery cart. Relena asked Aurora to stop and turn back to help the boy Aurora accidently sent into the jewelery cart.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Relena said to the boy as she helped him off the broken cart.

"That's alright, I wasn't..." Richie began before he recognized Relena as one of the members of the Kaiou royal family, "paying attention.

"L-look, I-I was wondering... if you'd go out with me," finished Richie as at first stammered and then finished really quickly.

Relena looked at her Pokémon bodyguard and then to Richie as he looked nervous at first and then drooped his shoulders in defeat.

"I'm sorry for wasting your time," Richie said as he started to turn away.

"Wait, please don't go," Relena requested Richie. The young boy turned around still with a defeated look on his face. But Relena had a gentle smile on her face as she said, "I think that's the first time a cutie like you as ever come up to me and bluntly ask me to go out them.

Richie then became interested as Relena continued, "I hope it'll be the only time a cutie like you has ever asked to go out with them. To answer your question, yes, I'll go out with you. But I hope your intention isn't just to say that you dated a princess."

"N-no, never, I would never do that," stammered Richie. "My mother would be disappointed if I did that."

Relena smiled as she inched closer to Richie and said, "I'm Relena Delilah Kaiou; what's your name?"

"R-Richie David Anderson," Richie answered nervously as he used his mother's maiden name instead of his father's last name.

"Well Richie," began Relena. "I'm beginning to think that maybe leaving Sol was a good idea after all. Let's travel together Richie, you and me. We'll take on the Atlantica Islands Pokémon League and gyms together."

"Yeah," said an excited Richie. "But don't you think we should find some way of sealing relationship together with something?"

"Seal our relationship?" asked Relena as she looked at Richie confused. "You mean like an agreement?"

"Yeah," answered Richie as a jukebox suddenly turned on and began to play a random song. "Mother always said that when a couple begins a relationship that they should seal their relationship with an agreement of some sort."

Relena smiled as she knew what to do and Richie seemed to be familiar with the song that was playing as he held Relena's hands tenderly.

"Let's seal our relationship with a kiss as we hear that song in the background," suggested Relena as the song God Gave Me You by Dave Barnes played in the background. And so they sealed their relationship with a kiss before setting out on a journey that would change their lives forever.


	4. Chapter 4

Previously: _"Seal our relationship?" asked Relena as she looked at Richie confused. "You mean like an agreement?"_

"_Yeah," answered Richie as a jukebox suddenly turned on and began to play a random song. "Mother always said that when a couple begins a relationship that they should seal their relationship with an agreement of some sort."_

_Relena smiled as she knew what to do and Richie seemed to be familiar with the song that was playing as he held Relena's hands tenderly._

"_Let's seal our relationship with a kiss as we hear that song in the background," suggested Relena as the song God Gave Me You by Dave Barnes played in the background. And so they sealed their relationship with a kiss before setting out on a journey that would change their lives forever._

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and story elements of the Pokémon franchise. Nintendo owns it; I'm just borrowing their characters and story elements for entertainment purposes.

4: The Tough yet Adorable Sparky, Richie's First Pokémon

Things for youngest daughter of Michiru Delia Kaiou seemed to starting off on the right foot for her despite having to flee from her own home. She slipped past 15 of her 16 brothers and sisters, who wanted her either thrown out of the palace or dead... well maybe not dead, but completely humiliated to the point where she would never show her face again. Her mother and sister, Jessica, helped her flee from Sol Palace after helping her pack some of her new clothes, two of her one piece swimsuits and some gear that Jessica bought for her during her journey. The items that were purchased were a iPhone 4S with a weather and waterproof case, a Butterfly Edge sword to use in self-defense, some Quick Balls to use for capturing certain Pokémon without having to fight in Pokémon battles, and a pack of 6 Potions and a few Full Heals to go along with the supplies Relena picked up at Aurora's treasure cavern. Jessica felt that her baby sister was ready to tackle the Pokémon world and take it by storm.

Relena about thought her sister's encouraging words as she checked her supplies and then looked to her boyfriend as she gave a gentle smile as she saw him blushing redder than a Cheri Berry.

'Maybe it was our first kiss was a little too much for him,' thought Relena as she too was blushing after they had their first kiss. 'But I know my sister is gonna wanna know about him.'

Relena turned to her boyfriend with a gentle smile on her face as she noticed him just sitting on a bench and his face was a little red after his first kiss with Relena.

'I can't believe that I asked the youngest daughter of Kaiou family to go out with me,' thought Richie as he was thinking what had happened. 'I was trying to ask her for directions and I asked her to date me. WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?! YOU'RE AN IDIOT!'

Relena looked to Richie and then pulled out her new iPhone and called her sister Jessica. Three rings went by until Jessica picked up and answered.

"_Hey there baby sister_," Jessica said in a sleepy tone. "_I didn_'_t think you would call this early_._ You_'_re not homesick already_,_ are you_?"

"Ha ha, no I'm not homesick," answered Relena as she gave a light chuckle, "but I do need your help. You and Argon's help."

"_They haven_'_t found out have they_?" Jessica asked Relena in a sleepy and worried tone.

"No, the other siblings haven't found out that I left," answered Relena. "The servants haven't either."

"_Well that_'_s good to hear_," began Jessica in an irritated tone, "_but why are you calling me_?"

"I'm calling you because I have surprise for you," Relena said to her as she and Jessica were

"_Did you win a million dollars already_?" Jessica jokingly asked Relena as she reached for her bottle of water.

"Nope, I got a boyfriend," answered Relena with a beaming smile.

Jessica widened her eyes and spat out the water at Argon by mistake and made the shiny Tyranitar become startled and wake up looking to see what hit him with water.

"_Well_,_ that is a surprise_," replied Jessica. "_Argon and I will be right there_. _Shopping District_, _right_?"

"Yup," answered Relena as Jessica turned her phone off.

Relena turned her phone off as well and went back to her boyfriend, who still was blushing. Relena took notice of him blushing and gave him a peck kiss on his right cheek to calm him down.

In a set of bushes close to Relena and Richie, a lone Pikachu watched the very young couple and shook his head when he saw Relena and Richie being romantic. That or he was shaking his head at Richie because he wasn't the kind of trainer he was looking for. He gave one last look at the two young trainers before scampering off, but keeping a close eye on Relena and Richie. He was hungry and the shop owners he knew certainly had their restaurants open at the time. The Pikachu had a scruff of fur that grew on his forehead and had many compliments from the store owners he knew well. The Pikachu did have a name and it was one given to him by the daughter of a hardware store owner. She had named him Sparky because of the electric energy he gives off with his Thundershock attack. The Pikachu took a liking to the name Sparky and kept it ever since.

"Hello Sparky," greeted the store owner of a pastry shop close to Sparky's little hideout.

'_Hi there Joanna_,' replied Sparky as he didn't look at the pastry shop owner and kept watching Relena and Richie.

The pastry shop owner put her hands on her hips and huffed in frustration as she said in a mock pout, "And I just baked a fresh batch of brown sugar cookies. You're usually my taste taster."

Sparky then heard his stomach growling again and decided to break off of watching the young couple. He followed the pastry shop owner to help with making sure that her pastries and desserts would be ready for the very early birds who opened their shops early to get ready for the day.

'_Hey wait for me_,' Sparky called out to the pastry shop owner.

Within 30 minutes Relena, Richie and Aurora were sitting by a fountain waiting for Jessica to arrive with her faithful companion, her shiny Tyranitar, Argon. The three of them heard the noise of a car engine coming and Relena knew that it was her sister Jessica as she usually drove a Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra. Jessica parked her car a block away and released Argon from his Pokéball.

"Alright Argon, let's go meet with my baby sister and her first and hopefully her only boyfriend," Jessica said to her shiny Tyranitar.

'_Coming Jessica_,' replied Argon as he followed Jessica closely. Argon had decided to follow Aurora's example and become Jessica's bodyguard whenever Jason wasn't around. Jessica had hastily put her china blue dress and hadn't fixed her hair up and just let her hair down. Jessica really wasn't dressed to meet Relena and her boyfriend, but went nonetheless.

'_You know Jessica_,' began Argon, '_you left my Float Stone in your dresser_.'

Jessica yawned and shook her head as she walked across the street to the fountain with Argon hot on her heels, trying to stay as close as possible to her. Jessica got across the street and approached the fountain where her baby sister and her boyfriend were waiting for her and Argon. Relena noticed her sister coming, got up and ran towards her.

"Hi Jess," Relena said happily as she wrapped her arms around Jessica's waist and hugged her sister.

Jessica just yawned and patted Relena on her head as she was still tired and wanted to be sleeping instead being up at an ungodly hour meeting someone new. Relena looked up and noticed that Jessica was sleepy still and let go of her older sister. She helped Jessica over to the fountain and helped her sit down.

"Thank you Relena," Jessica said sleepily. "Can you and Argon go get my glasses, please? They're in the glove compartment."

"Sure thing," Relena answered cheerfully. "Come on Argon."

'_Coming little Princess_,' replied Argon as he took the lead and began to cross the street with Relena at his side much to Aurora's displeasure. '_Sure_,_ she remembered to bring her glasses, but left my Float Stone in her dresser_.'

"I heard that Argon," Jessica snapped at Argon sleepily before noticing Aurora's displeasure. "Relena will be fine with Argon, Aurora,"

'I know, but I feel tense when little Relena leaves my sight,' Aurora replied softly to Jessica.

Jessica gave a slight nod as she understood where Aurora was coming from. Relena's mother and Jessica had asked Aurora to remain at Relena's side and protect her.

"I understand Aurora," began Jessica as she stood up and went over to Aurora and whispered in his ear, "But I need your help to grill this kid about why he wants to date my baby sister. I'm not gonna let just any guy date my baby sister. I'm sure you wouldn't want any this kid dating Relena for the wrong reasons."

Aurora gave a slight nod as he too didn't want either this Richie kid, or another guys dating Relena just to say they dated someone from the royal family or for... other reasons. Aurora and Jessica approached a nervous Richie as he sat there waiting for Relena to return from the small errand that Jessica sent her on.

"Excuse me, are you Relena's boyfriend?" Jessica asked Richie.

"Y-yes," stammered Richie as was nervous. "M-my name is Richie Henderson."

'Henderson, isn't that the last name of the third gym leader on Emerald Island?' Aurora asked Jessica.

"Yeah, Rena 'Sakura' Henderson," answered Jessica before turning to Richie. "Are you saying that you're the son of the third gym leader?"

"So that's where mother went to," Richie said to himself as he had no clue where his mother went to after she left him at the Emerald Cove Resort.

'Eh, are you saying that you didn't know that your mother became a gym leader?' Aurora asked Richie surprise.

Richie shook his head and answered, "My stepfather told me that my mother left me for another guy and got killed."

"What about your father?" Jessica asked Richie as she was interested in hearing Richie's story.

Richie told Jessica and Aurora his personal story about how he was born into a family of resort owners on Emerald Island. He told them about how his mother married a thief hired by a rival owner to steal from her resort and she caught him trying to steal from her personal safe.

As Richie was telling his story to Jessica and Aurora, Relena and Argon rummaged through Jessica's Mustang looking for Jessica's glasses.

"Ugh, why doesn't Jess ever keep her glasses in a container?" huffed an upset Relena.

Argon chuckled at Relena's question and answered, '_I_'_ve been wondering that myself and even I don't have an answer for that_.'

"I thought you were supposed to know almost everything about Jessica," Relena said to her sister's shiny Tyranitar.

'_I guess you_'_re right about that_,' said Argon as he chuckled in embarrassment. '_Most of the time, I let Jessica have some space and charge in whenever she needs me_.'

"Not good, if you're gonna be Jessica's bodyguard," Relena said as she finally looked under the front passenger seat. "Ah, found them. They were under the passenger seat.

"Okay, let's get back to Jess and Aurora," Relena said as she put her sister's glasses in her own right breast jacket pocket. "Are you coming Argon?"

'_C-coming Relena_,' called out Argon as he hurried over to the young princess's side.

"So why do you want to date my baby sister?" Jessica asked Richie as she figured that Relena had found her glasses by now after listening to Richie's story along with Aurora.

Richie sighed as he gave his answer.

"I wasn't really thinking when I asked your sister out," answered Richie. "I was trying to ask for directions. But I was so..."

Richie paused to think for the rest of his answer. He was trying to think of the rest of his answer as he wanted to be honest with Jessica and his girlfriend's Pokémon bodyguard.

"Transfixed by how cute she looked?" asked Jessica as she guessed what Richie was trying to say.

"Yes," Richie answered softly as he was worried that Jessica and Aurora would be upset with him.

Jessica looked to her baby sister's Pokémon bodyguard with a smile and gave him a nod as to say that she approved of Richie. Aurora was a bit hesitant at first but gave a nervous nod as he would allow this Richie kid be near Relena.

"You're a good kid," began Jessica, "and we think you're a good fit for Relena."

"Really?" asked Richie.

'Yes really,' answered Aurora. 'But I will remain at her side, always.'

"Just promise that you'll take care of my baby sister and treat her with respect," requested Jessica.

"My parents taught me to be respective of the ladies," Richie replied as he suddenly found a sense of confidence as he smiled to Jessica and Aurora.

'That's a good answer young man,' said Aurora. 'But you have a long road ahead of you before I'll trust you.'

"Um thank you," Richie said nervously before facing Jessica. "I'll take good care of Relena.. I'd protect her with my life."

"Oh that's so sweet of you," Relena said as she and Argon rejoined the group and handed Jessica her designer glasses. "Next time make sure you have your case for your glasses."

'_I don't see why you even need to wear glasses_,_ Jessica_,' Argon said to his trainer. '_Your eyes are perfect and I don't think you need them_.'

"Argon, they're not prescription glasses," Jessica said as she went over to Relena and cleaned her glasses on Relena's jacket.

"Hey!" exclaimed Relena. "Don't clean your glasses on my jacket."

"Well that's what happens when you wake me up at 2:15 in the morning," replied Jessica as she put her glasses on her face. "Now I'm guessing there's more to this then meeting your boyfriend, right?"

"Oh yes," answered Relena as Jessica gave a long yawn. "Richie here needs some clothes and he left Emerald Island with just the clothes on his back and the form the let's him be a Pokémon trainer earlier than 10 years old."

Jessica eyes then widened when she heard that Richie had only the clothes on his back. Jessica then snapped her fingers in Argon's direction.

'_Yes Jessica_, _I_'_m on it_,' said Argon as he quickly thundered back to Jessica's car.

"Uh, is there something that I should know about?" Richie asked as he became nervous.

'Listen to my advice young Richie Henderson,' began Aurora, 'it's best if you don't try to run from Jessica.'

Richie gave a gulp of fear as he was frozen in place and it wasn't from her Beartic that she let out of his Pokéball. Argon thundered back to Jessica as he brought her sewing kit to her.

"Argon, measuring tape," Jessica commanded her Tyranitar as she snapped her fingers.

Argon hurriedly got into her sewing kit, pulled out her measuring tape and tossed her the measuring tape. Jessica caught the measuring tape and made measurements of Richie and wrote them down on a notebook that Argon tossed to her before she could snap her fingers and request Argon to give it to her.

"Hmm...," began Jessica as she looked over her measurements for Richie and then began to sketch designs.

Jessica also had a dark aura behind her as scribbled designs for various outfits for Richie... and one more outfit for Relena. Jessica was certainly wide awake now that her inner Tim Gunn was unleashed and the paper was flying as she finished coming up with designs.

"Now, let's get to those stores and get these outfits assembled and ready for your boyfriend," Jessica said as she pushed her glasses up to the bridge of her nose and then reached to grab Richie as if she was an evil genius bent on doing experiments on Richie.

Sparky had finished testing food out at the pastry shop and then went to find the young human couple and searched for 15 minutes until he came across Relena and Richie by chance at a shop where they were buying winter gear.

"No Jessica, I mean it," Relena said as she shoved the boots back at her sister. "I'm not wearing boots and that's final."

"Oh really?" challenged Jessica "What if you guys go to the arctic area of the Atlantica Islands?"

"She has a point Relena," said Richie as he was still wearing the winter outfit Jessica had designed for him. "Not to mention one of the gyms is on Sapphire Island. And Sapphire Island is in the arctic area of the Atlantica Islands."

"I said 'no' and mean 'no'," snapped Relena. "My sandals are fine. I will not wear any other footwear."

Jessica rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief.

"So when your feet start to freeze you'll still refuse to wear footwear that keeps them warm, right?" Jessica asked her baby sister as she was trying to use logic.

Relena narrowed her eyes at Jessica as she knew Jessica was right but tried to hold out and come up with an excuse that would pass.

"Yeah... but..." protested Relena before Richie held her hands tenderly.

"Relena, you've got to be realistic," Richie said to his girlfriend. "It's cold on Sapphire Island and temperature rarely gets past 40 degrees. I know, my mother took me to Sapphire Island and it is really cold."

"You should listen to your boyfriend, Relena," Jessica said as she gestured to Richie.

Relena sighed in defeat as she drooped her shoulders and accepted the pair of boots Jessica offered to her. Relena examined the boots and gave them a close look. They were brown leather hiking boots that were made for just the climate on the Sapphire Island.

An hour later Relena and Richie came out with a couple shopping bags each. Relena got a winter outfit that her sister designed for her and the pair of winter boots that she was reluctant to buy. Relena shook her head in disbelief, but at least the boots had a thick wool lining in them eliminating the need for socks as she made it very clear to her sister that there was not a ghost of chance that she would wear socks. The boots that she bought, Jessica pointed out had the thick wool lining eliminating the need for socks. Relena tried to say that the gossip tabloids might get a picture of her wearing boots when she felt that she had her reputation to keep in intact.

Jessica face-palmed herself lightly in disbelief at Relena being worried about some stupid gossip tabloids. She sighed as she sarcastically asked, "You're joking, right? You're worried about upholding some reputation you have and that some tabloid morons are gonna snap pictures of you just to get a cover story?!"

"Yeah," Relena answered softly with a worried look on her face.

Jessica took her 300 dollar glasses off and face-palmed herself harder at Relena being worried over nothing. Jessica ran her hand over her face and put her glasses back on her face as she composed herself and cleared her throat.

"Relena," began Jessica as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, "you're not that well-known to have your face plastered on the tabloids. So you don't have much to worry about.

"As for your reputation," continued Jessica, "throw it out the window. Hector only did that so you could feel better about yourself."

'_Ouch_, _that_'_s kind of harsh don_'_t you think_?' asked Sparky as he made his presence known.

Richie turned around and noticed Sparky for the first time and then sighed as he wished he had a Pokémon like his girlfriend, who already had 3 Pokémon with her

"You know, I'm looking to get a Pokémon," Richie told Sparky. "Why not be my first Pokémon?"

'_Because you don_'_t have any Pokéballs_,' answered Sparky. '_And why would I want to be with someone like you_?_ I_'_d rather be with a trainer like your girlfriend_.'

That response really hurt Richie as he was looking for his first Pokémon, but Sparky was right about one thing, he had no Pokéballs.

"That can be remedied easily," Jessica said as she gave Richie a set of Pokéballs that had a star sticker on them. "There, now you have Pokéballs to catch Pokémon with."

"Thank you," Richie said to Jessica as he bowed to her.

Jessica then picked up Sparky and took him to the side with Argon following them.

"Why are you being judgmental of that poor kid?" Jessica asked Sparky. "Don't you think that he deserves to have a Pokémon that's strong, kind... a Pokémon like you."

'_I_'_d rather be with the girl instead of him_,' answered Sparky.

"Could it hurt to give my sister's boyfriend a chance?" Jessica asked Sparky in a silky and seductive tone.

Sparky sighed as he drooped his shoulders in defeat. How could he say 'no' to human female when she uses silky and a seductive tone with him. He just gives in and agrees.

'_Fine I_'_ll give him a chance to prove himself to me_,' relented Sparky. '_But the first time he messes up_,_ I_'_m walking_.'

"Fair enough," said Jessica as she held her hands up in mock surrender.

Once things were settled and Sparky became Richie's first Pokémon, Jessica decided that the young couple should go on their first date together and go to the beach as the place of their first official date as a couple. Richie was all too eager to make a good first impression with his girlfriend. With what money he had, Richie went and bought a picnic basket with an orange beach blanket and floral designs on it which were very colorful and suggested by Sparky.

'_Now then_,_ do you know what kind of foods that Princess Relena likes_?' Sparky asked Richie.

Richie just scratched his head has he had no clue whatsoever on what kind of foods she liked. Sparky just sighed and shook his head in disbelief.

'_So in other words you don't know much about Princess Relena_,' assumed Sparky.

"Sadly, not much," Richie answered sheepishly.

'_We_'_re going to have a difficult time if you don_'_t know things about your girlfriend_,' Sparky said after he sighed and shook his head.

"Sorry," Richie said to Sparky as his face was downcast and became a bit upset.

'_Hey_,_ hey_,_ hey_,_ hey_,_ don_'_t start crying on me now_,' Sparky said to Richie before he smacked him upside his head. '_You_'_ve got a girlfriend to impress as well as her sister and her Suicune bodyguard_.'

Richie had a sweatdrop on his forehead when Sparky told him he had to impress Jessica and his girlfriend's Pokémon bodyguard as well as Relena.

'_Okay_,_ let_'_s get some sandwich materials_,_ chips and berry juice_,' said Sparky as he ticked off the items that would need to be put in the picnic basket.

"Why berry juice?" Richie asked Sparky.

'_Because you don_'_t want your first Pokémon to be unhappy and thirsty_,_ now do you_?' Sparky asked Richie.

"Good point," answered Richie. "Wish I knew what food Relena's Pokémon bodyguard likes. I'm just gonna have to make guesses.

'_Yes you are_,' said Sparky. '_But it_'_s gonna be part of the wonderful learning experience_.'

Richie and Sparky continued shopping and filled up the picnic basket ready for Richie's first date.

"Jess, are you sure that's a good idea?" Relena asked her older sister as she was worried.

"Of course," answered Jessica. "I did it to Jason when we started to date each other. Besides I also did this to make sure that Jason wasn't a pervert. He still isn't a perverrt."

Relena remained silent as Jessica continued, "Do you want to find if your boyfriend is a pervert later? It'll certainly help you avoid seeing Aurora bringing his wrath down on your boyfriend should he be a pervert."

Relena thought about that for a moment. Now the idea seemed more like a good idea to her and she wanted to make sure that Richie wasn't a pervert and the run away from home portion of his story that she learned from Jessica and Aurora wasn't just an act.

"It's gonna leave him traumatized," Relena said to Jessica.

"But, it'll be worth it to know that your boyfriend's not a pervert and will never be a pervert," Jessica said as she set her left on Relena's shoulder reassuringly.

Relena sighed and but gave a slight nod. She didn't like the idea of exposing herself to her boyfriend she just met, but she wanted to make sure that Richie wasn't a pervert and she wanted to completely trust him as well.

"I'll do it," Relena said as she sighed. "But I'm surprised that Aurora agreed to this idea. Normally he would never agree to such an idea."

"Aurora?" Jessica asked her baby sister as she turned her back to Relena. "He... he doesn't know about this idea."

"What?" asked an alarmed Relena as her emerald green eyes widened. "What do you mean Aurora doesn't about this idea? He knows almost everything; he's around me all the time. Aurora's either at my side or close by."

"I know that he's nearby or at your side," Jessica calmly answered Relena. "He's 99.9% at your side."

Relena laughed and agreed to Jessica's last statement. Aurora was always at her side or at least 6 feet away. It was extremely rare for Aurora to leave Relena's side, but Jessica insisted that Aurora look out for Richie as he and Sparky were arriving at the beach for the date.

'_Are you sure this right beach_,_ Richie_?' Sparky asked his trainer.

Richie didn't answer but noticed Aurora waiting for them along with Argon. Argon spotted Richie and Spark and waved them over to join them.

'_You_'_re just in time_,_ you two_,' Argon said to Richie and Sparky.

'_For someone who was looking to ask for directions_,_ he_'_s doing pretty well around Tsunami Island_,' Sparky said to the shiny Tyranitar who had just come to meet up with Richie.

'That's good to know,' said Aurora. 'Let's get this date started. I don't want Relena to be disappointed.'

'_But the little Princess requests the presence of her boyfriend_,' Argon said to Aurora as he looked to Richie.

"Uh... she wants to see me?" Richie asked Argon confused. Argon just gave a slight nod, motioned for Richie to give him the picnic basket and pointed to the private changing tent.

Richie gave a nervous nod, handed Argon the picnic basket and headed to the changing tent with the trunks that Jessica bought for him. They were a teal green and had the family crest of the Emerald Henderson family. Jessica knew of Richie's family and had seen their family crest on the logo of the Emerald Crown Resort. Richie went to the changing tent and looked to see where Relena was.

"Come closer Richie," Relena gently requested to her boyfriend.

Richie did as he was requested, but what he saw made him become shocked and his face became bright red. Twenty minutes later, Relena and Richie came out of the changing tent with smiles on their faces, but Richie still had some red on his face after seeing his girlfriend naked for the first time. He really hadn't expected her to do that him. After about 15 seconds, Richie was quick to turn his back to her as he wasn't a pervert. Richie wasn't going to disappoint his parents and become a pervert either.

"I take it he passed the test," assumed Jessica as she noticed the young couple's smiles and was about to take a drink from her bottle of water with Argon next her setting the beach blanket down on the sandy beach.

"Yes he passed the test," Relena informed Jessica as she was wearing a royal blue swimsuit with a skirt as part of the swimsuit. "And he can look at me naked all he wants too."

Jessica's eyes widened and she spat her water at Argon's direction hitting him and causing him to be startled once again when he felt the water. Jessica hadn't expected Relena to say that to her. Relena wasn't the type of to let just anyone look at her naked. For Relena to allow her boyfriend Richie to look at her naked, meant that she trusted her boyfriend completely.

Aurora was not happy as Jessica now had to explain why she had Relena test Richie. Aurora was a bit upset with his trainer for agreeing to do the test, but relieved to know Richie was not a pervert. The rest of the first date went rather well as Richie seemed to be rather lucky or he had a little help from Jessica about the things that Relena liked. Whatever the case, he seemed to be making a good first impression and Relena was quite affectionate especially when they took pictures together.

The date lasted until sunrise when Relena and Richie were tired and fell asleep on the beach blanket. Jessica made sure wrapped the blanket around her baby sister and her boyfriend they were sound asleep still in their swimsuits and Sparky in between both of them. The young couple didn't notice Jessica and Argon leaving them. She whispered to Aurora that her baby sister was in his care and to protect her with his life. She also left a letter for Relena to read when she and Richie woke up. Jessica also left a generous gift for the young couple that would find.

'_Well I guess the little Princess won't be under your protection anymore_,' Argon said to his trainer. '_It_'_ll be hard to live in the palace without the her around_.'

"Actually Argon, we're moving out of the palace ourselves," Jessica said to her Tyranitar companion. "So let's get most of my clothes and all of my fashion design notebooks."

'_Got it_,' Argon said as they drove back to the palace. '_Guess it_'_s the start of change for Kaiou House_,_ the Atlantica Islands and the Pokémon world as well_.'

Jessica gave a slight nod and took a glance at the rising sun and said, "The time has come for Relena to become the force of change, the Pokémon Princess."


	5. Chapter 5

Relena: Another chapter is coming your way readers. Sparky does not own Pokémon, the characters or the story elements. Nintendo owns them all. Come on Sparky, get writing!

Me: Yes your Highness [Bows to Relena]

Previously: '_Well __I __guess __the __little __Princess __won't __be __under __your __protection __any more_,' Argon said to his trainer. '_It_'_ll __be __hard __to __live __in __the __palace __without __her __around_.'

"Actually Argon, we're moving out of the palace ourselves," Jessica said to her Tyranitar companion. "So let's get most of my clothes and all of my fashion design notebooks."

'_Got __it_,' Argon said as they drove back to the palace. '_Guess __it_'_s __the __start __of __change __for the __Kaiou __House_, _the __Atlantica __Islands __and __the __Pokémon __world __as __well_.'

_Jessica gave a slight nod and took a glance at the rising sun and said, "The time has come for Relena to become the force of change, the Pokémon Princess."_

5: Bye Bye Tsunami Island, Hello Ruby Island

As the sun was high around 11in the morning Relena and Richie were still asleep wrapped in their beach blanket, Sparky in between them and Aurora letting them use his sleeping form as a pillow. People had already started arriving at the beach and noticed the young couple sleeping peacefully and passed them.

"Please don't make me wear boots, Jess," Relena said in her sleep as part of the beach blanket was lightly peeled away, by a passerby, to show that the young couple was still wearing their swimsuits.

"I hope you can be proud of me, mother," Richie said in his sleep.

Another hour passed and one person approached Relena and Richie as he studied them. He had light gray hair and wore a lab coat over a yellow tropical print shirt, light tan shorts and some sandals on his feet. He slowly approached the sleeping kids and tried to shake the boy at first getting no response from the boy. He then turned to the girl and shook the girl which turned out to be a mistake as Aurora woke up and noticed the elderly man in the lab coat shaking Relena awake. He then pounced on the man waking both Relena and Richie.

"Huh, what's going on?" asked Relena as she was startled by Aurora suddenly waking up and pouncing on the elderly man.

"I'm not sure," answered Richie as Sparky slowly rose after hearing Aurora pouncing.

Relena looked and saw her Pokémon bodyguard pinning an elderly man in the sand glaring at the elderly man.

"Oi! Aurora!" exclaimed Relena as she went over to her bodyguard. "Let him go!"

'This man tried to attack you,' replied Aurora as he kept his left paw on the elderly man.

"I don't think he was trying to attack me Aurora," Relena said before she began to try and get Aurora to let the man go. "Ngh... Aurora! Let... him... go."

Aurora narrowed his eyes at the elderly man as he held his hands up in surrender.

"Come... on... Aurora," grunted Relena as she used all her body strength to make her Pokémon bodyguard release the elderly man.

The elderly man took advantage of Relena trying to force the blue Pokémon off of him and got loose thanks in part to them being on the beach. But as the elderly man got loose, the blue Pokémon fell on Relena.

"Uh Aurora, I'm glad that you're protecting me," began Relena, "but could ya get off of me, please?"

Aurora then noticed that he was on Relena and then stood up as he helped her up as well. Once Relena was on her feet, Relena and Aurora went over to the elderly man.

"I'm sorry about Aurora," Relena said to the elderly man as she slightly bowed to him. "He can be a bit overprotective at times. But he's just doing his job."

The elderly man chuckled and replied, "It's alright, I thought the Pokémon would be sound asleep. But I never thought that I'd see such a very rare and powerful Pokémon here in this region."

'Very rare?' Aurora asked the elderly man as he put his trainer on his back. 'I may be rare, but there are plenty of other Pokémon like me here in the Atlantica Islands.'

"We're aware that a Suicune is considered as a legendary Pokémon in the Johto region," began Richie as he joined the conversation. "But here in the Atlantica Islands, most legendary Pokémon are common like Suicune in certain areas of the Atlantica Islands."

After all apologies were said, the elderly man introduced himself as Professor Samuel Oak. Relena and Richie introduced themselves along with their Pokémon.

"I've seen some interesting Pokémon," began Professor Oak, "but I've never seen such Pokémon that you have your..."

"I'm sorry, but I ask that you just call me by my name instead adding 'Princess'," insisted Relena. "Mother always said that titles are temporary and hold no value in life."

"Well..." began Professor Oak with a sweatdrop on his head, "that's... rather interesting. This is my second time here in this region."

'I assume that you haven't seen all the Pokémon here in the Atlantica Islands,' Aurora said to Professor Oak.

"No, not really," replied Professor Oak. "I've only seen Pokémon here on Tsunami Island and the urban areas of the islands here in the region."

"Shouldn't you go out of the urban areas and research Pokémon there?" Richie asked Professor Oak.

"Well yes," began Professor Oak as he scratched his head, "but I'm trying to complete a two year study of Pokémon that live in urban areas first."

Richie then checked his watch on the picnic basket.

"Oh no! We gotta go put our permission forms into the government offices!" exclaimed Richie in surprise.

Relena was also startled because they had to hurry and get to the main government building before they went to lunch.

"Grab my green jacket, my beach towel and a shirt for you," Relena quickly instructed her boyfriend. "We should at least look halfway decent once we get there."

"Won't you need your sandals too?" Richie asked Relena as he held up her sandals.

Relena gave a slight nod as Richie grabbed the said items Relena said they would need before going to get their license. Richie gently helped Relena off of Aurora's back.

"You're very sweet Richie," Relena said with a soft and gentle smile as she wrapped the beach towel around her waist and then put her green jacket on.

"You know, I could take you over there and help you fill out the paper work," offered Professor Oak.

Unfortunately Relena and Richie were already off and had dropped the permission forms as they dashed off on Aurora's back. The professor then picked up the two forms and then got in his rental car and drove to the government building ahead of the aspiring couple. Within 15 minutes Relena and Richie arrived at the government building already stuck in a line with four other trainers that were younger than 10 years old.

"Ah man, we'll never make it with the trainers in front of us," moaned Relena as she readjusted her beach towel as if she was wearing a skirt.

"May I have a Miss Kaiou and a Master Henderson to the front desk, please," a clerk called out to the trainers standing in line.

Relena and Richie looked at each other puzzled and approached the desk where the clerk called their names.

"You called for us?" Relena asked the clerk still puzzled.

"Yes," answered the clerk as she motioned for them to follow her.

Twenty minutes later, they walked out of the government building with their licenses and the new Pokédex that covered Pokémon from the five major regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova. They finally gave a sigh of relief after they got their licenses to be Pokémon trainers.

'You two should be very lucky that Professor Oak had your permission forms and even signed off on letting you two have your Pokédexes early,' Aurora said as the three of them were back at the beach where they left their things.

"We know Aurora," sighed Relena as she picked clothes to wear as they were going to head for the site of their first gym badge, Ruby Island. "But right now we just need to put some clean clothes on."

"Yeah," agreed Richie, "as much as I like being in swim trunks, I'd like to be wearing different clothes."

Relena, with clothes in hand, grabbed Richie's hand and replied, "Come on cutie, let's go change clothes together."

"Huh?" asked a startled Richie as he began blushing. "H-hey w-wait a minute! Don't you think Aurora will be a bit upset? C-Come on!"

Sparky and Aurora saw Relena and Richie going into the changing tent... again. Sparky saw his new trainer looking to him and Aurora for help with pleading eyes. Both Pokémon each had a sweatdrop on the back of their head as they watched Richie being pulled into the changing tent. After about 25 minutes, Relena and Richie came out of the changing tent changed into clean clothes and their swimsuits nicely folded. Relena was wearing a sleeveless mango orange dress, skin tight shorts underneath her dress, pink belt lightly snug around her waist and green hair ribbons and her green sandals. Her green jacket was not on her as she wanted

'Was it necessary for you to have him change clothes with you while you were changing clothes?' the Aurora Pokémon asked his trainer. 'From the look on his face, he was willing to let you change clothes, but not in front of him.'

"Well, he didn't freak out," countered Relena.

'That's not the point,' Aurora countered back in a gentle tone. 'But you need to exercise caution. There will certainly be deceitful boys and men who would try to take advantage of you.'

"Mother and Jess gave me the same speech before we left Sol Palace," huffed Relena.

'I'm just doing my job,' replied Aurora.

Relena shook her head as she hugged her Pokémon bodyguard and said, "I know you're doing your job and I appreciate that."

'_If you appreciate Aurora_'_s help then you should listen to him_,' Sparky said to Relena as he got on Richie's shoulder.

Richie himself was wearing teal green knee length shorts, aqua green t-shirt, blue green hooded vest and a blue hat with a yellow stripe running across the front of his hat.

'_Looking good Richie_,' commented Sparky as he noticed Richie's outfit.

"Well, Relena's sister was the one who designed this outfit," Richie said as he scratched his head.

'_And she has good tastes in designing clothes_,' added Sparky.

"Yes, Jess does have that," agreed Relena as she got on Aurora's back and motioned Richie to join on her on Aurora's back.

'You, young Henderson, will need to find your own Pokémon to ride on,' commented Aurora as he didn't like that Richie was on his back.

"Sorry Aurora," Richie said with a sweatdrop on his head. "I promise I'll find my own Pokémon to ride on."

'Ruby Island is home to some quadruped Pokémon you could find that might let you ride on their back,' Aurora informed Richie

Richie gave a sigh of relief as he said, "That's great to know. I've always wanted to catch a shiny Raikou."

Aurora gave a slight chuckle as the group boarded a boat and were on their way. Six hours passed as the two humans and four Pokémon boarded the hi-speed boat towards the next destination. The small group then got off the boat; but what was announced on the PA startled them.

"The next boat will be heading to Sinnoh region in about three hours," said the person on the PA.

"What the?!" asked a startled Relena. "How are we heading to Sinnoh when we should be on Ruby Island?"

"We must've boarded the wrong boat," suggested Richie as he got off Aurora's back and helped Relena off of her Pokémon bodyguard's back. "I'll go talk to the boat's captain and see if we can get a ride to Ruby Island."

"Okay," agreed Relena. "Aurora and I will do some exploring while you talk to the captain."

'_Sounds __like __a __good __plan __to __me_,' replied Sparky.

Relena got on Aurora's back and they went exploring until they came to docks.

"YOU'RE COMPLETELY WORTHLESS!" shouted a girl who was in her mid-teens with red hair and wore a gray uniform with a gold G on the uniform.

'_Stop_!' exclaimed a white Ghost Pokémon that appeared to be a shiny Pokémon. '_I __didn_'_t __do __anything __wrong_. _It __was __just __an __accident __when __I __grabbed __that __oddly __shaped __Dawn __Stone_!'

"Shut up you stupid and worthless Pokémon!" snarled the teenage girl. "You were supposed to evolve into a Glalie. NOT A WORTHLESS **FROSLASS**!"

'_Ow_!' screamed the shiny white Ghost Pokémon from the Sinnoh region. '_Please __someone_, _help __me_. _Please_, _anyone __help __me_!'

The teenage girl didn't see the Scald attack coming as it caught her left leg and left arm. She screamed in pain as the shiny Froslass got away towards Relena and Aurora.

'_Oh_..._ thank you_..._ for coming_..._ to my aid_,' the shiny Froslass said wearily to Relena and Aurora as she was about to collapse had Relena not caught the shiny Froslass in her arms.

"That Pokémon is mine to do with as I see fit," the red-haired teenage girl demanded to Relena.

"I'm sorry, but hurting Pokémon because they didn't become something you wanted them to be is no excuse to beat them," countered Relena as she put her arms around the bruised Froslass

"GIMME BACK THAT POKEMON YOU LITTLE BITCH!" roared the red hair teenager.

Aurora was quick to grab the Froslass from Relena and found the closest place to take cover.

'_Why do we need to take cover_?' asked the injured Froslass.

'You don't want to be in Relena's path when she is insulted about her height,' answered Aurora. 'It's gonna be ugly if you call her that.'

Relena then cracked her knuckles as she then had a dark aura behind her. She then quickly charged at the red haired teenager, who had decided throw the name she had been given at birth away and called herself Mars. Mars didn't expect Relena to charge at her and tried to hold her hands up to protect herself but to no avail. Mars was punched and kicked hard like the youngest daughter of Michiru Kaiou had just summoned her inner Steve Segal as Mars tried to fight back but slapped down and after 5 minutes ended... uh, a bit contorted.

"THAT'S IT YOU'RE DEAD!" roared Mars. "YOU HEAR ME?! YOU'RE **DEAD!**"

One of Relena's Pokémon, the shiny Gardevoir named after Relena's mother, forced herself out of her Pokéball then glared at Mars with a defiant glare.

'_How dare you threaten a princess of the Kaiou family_,' lashed Michiru as she kept glaring at Mars in her contorted form. '_If you so much as try to hurt her_,_ then I will unleash a small blackhole against you_."

Mars's eyes went wide as Michiru mentioned that she could make a small black hole. Purugly then came to rescue her trainer with two skateboards she stole and set her trainer on them.

'_You got what you wanted_,' began Purugly, '_so take your prize and don_'_t ever cross our path again_.'

Purugly then pushed her contorted trainer away before Richie and Sparky arrived. After the contorted Mars and Purugly left, Aurora and the shiny Froslass came back closer to Relena and Michiru. The shiny Froslass lost her grip and fell to the ground.

'_I_'_m sorry about that wicked human and her Purugly_,' the shiny Froslass said weakly as she struggled to get up. '_I was supposed to evolve into a Glalie instead of becoming a shiny Froslass_.'

"Hey come on," began Relena, "you're a beautiful Pokémon. Anyone who says otherwise is really stupid."

The shiny Froslass looked to Relena with her eyes becoming bright.

'_Really_?' asked the Froslass as she looked to Relena with hope in her eyes. '_You think so_?'

Relena gave the shiny Froslass a slight nod with a gentle smile on her face.

"Of course I think so... Kagura," Relena answered the shiny Froslass.

'_Kagura_,_ huh_,_' _the Froslass said with a slight smile. '_Well I do like song and dance_; _even as a Snorunt_.'

"I'm glad you like the name," Relena said as she grabbed a Heal Ball. "Would you travel with me?"

'_As long as Kagura stays my name and you take me away from that awful human_,' replied Kagura.

"You got it," Relena said with a beaming smile on her face

Relena then lightly tapped the Heal Ball on Kagura's forehead to capture her. Three shakes and a confirmation click later, the shiny Froslass now named Kagura was a part of Relena's Pokémon team.

"Hey guys!" called out Richie as he and Sparky found Relena and Aurora. "I've got some good news."

"You're gonna marry me someday?" Relena asked jokingly.

Richie pulled out a ring that had an 18 karat white gold band with an aquamarine set on the band and two ½ karat diamonds on both sides of the aquamarine.

"Actually, yes I am going to marry you someday," Richie answered with a grin much to Relena's shock as he gave the ring to her. "With Aurora and Sparky as my witnesses, I give you this ring to hold on to until we get older. Once we're older, I'll propose to you."

'_You know I_'_m gonna make sure and hold you to your word_,' Sparky proudly informed his trainer.

'As will I hold you to your word young Richie Henderson,' agreed Aurora.

'_I too will ensure you keep your word_,' added Michiru as she joined in as another witness.

Aurora cleared his throat and asked Richie, 'Don't you have news about getting us to Ruby Island?'

Richie had a sweatdrop on his forehead and answered, "Yes. The captain has agreed to make a special trip to Ruby Island."

The next morning, the young couple and Pokémon began to disembark from the boat at Ruby Island after stopping over back on Tsunami Island for refueling and rest for the crew. After the boat docked at the harbor, Richie, Relena and their Pokémon disembarked from the boat. What all, but Richie, would discover was that Ruby Island was very humid year round. As Relena got into the humid air, she began to sweat and feel her dress stick to her body as it began to perspire with sweat.

"Oh man, I wasn't expecting it to be so humid on Ruby Island," Relena said as she felt the humidity hit her hard. "Have you ever felt this kind of humidity Richie?"

Richie disembarked alongside Relena and felt the humidity hit him too. But the humidity didn't affect as much as it did when he first arrived on Ruby Island with his mother, Rena Henderson.

"Richie?" asked a concerned Relena as she looked to her boyfriend who was already drifting into a daze when something caught his eye.

For a moment, time seemed to go backwards for Richie as he looked at the next dock over and there he saw a yacht with his family's crest on it. Richie studied the two people closely as he saw a woman in a one piece swimsuit with a sarong wrapped around her waist and having a slender figure and a little boy about 3 years old that reminded Richie of him when he and his mother first came to Ruby Island. The little 3 year old boy had swim trunks on and was being carried in his mother's arms. Richie began to approach the woman and her son.

"Huh, Richie?" asked a still confused Relena. "Where are you going?" Relena then began to follow Richie as he followed the woman and her child , despite being considerable distance from them, as he thought there was something familiar about the woman. The woman had cerulean blue eyes and cerulean blue dyed hair to match her eye color and this woman was definitely familiar to Richie.

'Mother? Is that you?' wondered Richie as he studied the woman and her son.

"Mommy, why do we have to wear our swim stuff if we're going to the beach?" the little boy asked his mother.

"Well sweetheart, it gets very hot and feels a bit... wet," answered the mother.

"But we're still going swimming... aren't we, mommy?" the little boy asked in a worried tone.

The woman then kissed her son affectionately and gave her son a gentle reassuring smile.

"Of course... Richie," the woman answered her son with a wink before looking Richie himself.

The woman then said words that Richie could not hear or make out before blowing a kiss to him. Richie let the blown kiss hit his left cheek as Richie was now clueless as she and the little boy disappeared right before his eyes.

"Richie?" asked Relena for a fourth time as she had stayed silent for a time while Richie was lost in his daze. "Earth to Richie, are you still alive?" Relena then gave him a kiss on his left cheek.

Richie began to blush as Relena kissed him on his left cheek. He then snapped out of his daze and looked to Relena. Richie took one last look to where he thought he thought he saw his mother and saw a different yacht that did not have his family's crest, but the crest of another wealthy family from Emerald Island and a teenage girl who wore some kind of bikini that made Richie turn away in embarrassment, but at least had a sarong around her waist to cover up the rest. Relena looked at the teenager and glared at her for the raunchy bikini she wore. But Relena then turned to the group and motioned for the group to join her and get out of the docks while the daughter and father were still bickering over what was deemed appropriate swimwear. [**Think Quick Trip commercial: www. youtube watch? v= arb LteuovzU**]

An hour later Relena had changed into the swimsuit that Jessica special ordered and bought for her. The swimsuit contoured to her body and was well forming as Jessica told her it would be.

'Thank you Jess for the swimsuit,' thought Relena as she thought about her sister back on Tsunami Island.

Richie had also put on his swim trunks too with a loosely worn button up shirt that Relena's sister bought as part of one of his summer outfits that Jessica designed for him. Relena gave Richie a slight nod of approval at Richie's choice.

"My sister Jessica did a very good job of designing your beach outfit," Relena said to Richie as she smiled at him.

"Yeah she did," agreed Richie. "But I have a feeling we're going to be in our swimsuits most of the time while we go and get our badge."

"Oh man," replied Relena as she shook her head. "We're gonna be staying here on the island for a while. We've got a whole year to prepare for the Pokémon League on Denali Island."

"So we're gonna be taking a while to prepare for our gym battles I take it," guessed Richie.

"Yup, you got it," answered Relena with a slight nod. "It'll also help us to catch other Pokémon on the islands too.

Relena even gave Richie a sly grin and sweetly wrapped her arms around Richie's waist making him blush as she finished, "We'll also have plenty of time to bond with each other too."

Richie had a sweatdrop on the back of his head as he nervously said, "Lucky me."

After finding a place to stay in the port city a month and a half, Relena and Richie each stocked up on food, healing items a small tent big enough for just Relena and Richie and a family-sized tent big enough to allow their Pokémon to sleep out of the weather at night. The tents were too heavy, but thanks to Jessica's advice, Relena suggested to Richie that he store the big tent in an empty Pokéball to save them and their Pokémon from back problems early in their journey. Once living arrangements were made and supplies bought, the young couple set out to the rainforest where they would find a wide assortment of Pokémon to capture and raise for their teams. Relena decided that Richie needed more Pokémon than she did as she already had four Pokémon while Richie only had Sparky. Richie looked around for any that he could catch. Then something caught his attention. It was a Charmander that was right for the catching. Richie was very lucky that his father taught him about catching Pokémon like any father would do with his son. But with the Quick Balls that Jessica left them, he might have to worry about battling as much if he could afford to avoid it. Richie grabbed one of the Quick Balls and threw it at the Charmander instantly causing it to be sucked into the Quick Ball much to the Charmander's shock and surprise. Three shakes and a confirmation click later and Richie successfully caught the Charmander as his first caught Pokémon.

'_Congratulations_,' complimented Sparky. '_But don't always assume that the Quick Ball will work every time_. _ Sometimes you_'_ll have to battle the Pokémon that you want to catch_._ Powerful Pokémon like_...'

Suddenly both Relena and Richie heard the snarling sound of a Pokémon that he knew and mentioned that he wanted to catch. It was none other than the 'legendary' Thunder Pokémon itself, Raikou. There was just one catch with the Raikou, it was a shiny Raikou. Richie gulped in terror at first but grabbed a second Quick Ball in hopes that he could avoid having to battle the shiny Raikou like he did with the Charmander he caught. The Quick Ball sucked the shiny Raikou into it and sat there for a couple seconds before shaking began. After two shakes inside the Quick Ball, the shiny Raikou broke out of the Quick Ball and sent back to Richie as he knew Richie was the one who threw the Quick Ball at him to capture him.

"Well at least he didn't smash it," Richie said to Sparky with a sweatdrop on his forehead.

'_True_,' agreed Sparky. '_Time to go work I suppose_.'

Richie struggled when Sparky tried to battle the shiny Raikou to no avail. Sparky seemed to be healing it instead of hurting it.

'This is my Volt Absorb ability,' the shiny Raikou said proudly through telepathy much like Aurora can. 'So thank you for recharging my batteries.'

"Alright Sparky come back," Richie said to the nearly worn out Pikachu.

'_G-Gladly Richie_,' panted Sparky as he returned to the side.

"Go Zippo! I'm trusting in you," said Richie as he threw the Quick Ball of his recently caught Charmander.

'_You can count on me and thanks for name you gave me_,' said Zippo '_I like it a lot_.'

"Alright Zippo, use Flamethrower on Raikou," ordered Richie.

The little Charmander obeyed and shot out a line of fire at the shiny Raikou which hit him and surprisingly enough, cause him to get burned by the Flamethrower attack.

'Gah! I wasn't expecting this!' exclaimed the shiny Raikou.

"Zippo use Fire Punch!" exclaimed Richie as he hoped to take advantage of Raikou being burned.

'I won't go down that easy,' countered Raikou as he dodged the Fire Punch attack from Zippo and countered with a Crunch attack himself.

The exchange went back and forth for another 10 minutes as both Pokémon were showing signs of exhaustion.

'H-Have you h-had en-enough yet little C-Charmander?' asked the panting shiny Raikou.

'_I-I can d-do th-this all day_,' answered a panting Zippo.

Richie studied the scene and then grabbed a Heal Ball to end the battle and heal the Raikou in the process.

"Heal Ball, go," Richie said as he threw the Heal Ball at the weary shiny Raikou.

The Heal Ball sucked in the shiny Raikou and fell to the ground. It shook three times and then gave a click at first, but then the Heal Ball shook again three times and at last gave a confirmation click to confirm that the shiny Raikou had admitted defeat at last.

"Alright!" Richie exclaimed with enthusiasm. "I caught a shiny Raikou like I always wanted!"

Sparky and Zippo joined in the victory and savored it for as long they could. Richie petted Sparky and Zippo for a job well done and then let out the newest member of his team.

"Welcome aboard... Thor," Richie said to the shiny Raikou as he held out his hand.

'Thor sounds like a name worthy of a powerful Pokémon like myself,' said Raikou at first but then extended his right paw and shook his new trainer's hand. 'I shall always be at your service.'

Relena and Aurora had been watching Richie from the side and were satisfied, mostly Aurora because he wouldn't have to ferry his trainer's boyfriend on his back again... when they traveled on land of course.

'I believe this start of a new life for us,' Aurora said to Relena. 'With help from Richie's new partners our journey shall be wondrous.'

"I agree," Relena said with a slight nod and soft smile. "We'll become the force of change in the Pokémon world. Jess even went as far as to call me the Pokémon Princess too."

'It is a title that will suit you quite well over time,' replied Aurora. 'I shall help you become the Pokémon Princess.'


	6. Chapter 6

Aurora: 'Before Sparky can begin, we must make sure that you know the disclaimer. Sparky does not own the characters and story elements of the Pokémon franchise. He is only using them for this side story to EmperorDraco7's Rise of Heroes fic. I have done the disclaimer for you Sparky, please begin the next chapter.'

Me: You got it Aurora and thank you.

_Previously: Relena and Aurora had been watching Richie from the side and were satisfied, mostly Aurora because he wouldn't have to ferry his trainer's boyfriend on his back again... when they traveled on land of course._

_'I believe this start of a new life for us,' Aurora said to Relena. 'With help from Richie's new partners our journey shall be wondrous.'_

_"I agree," Relena said with a slight nod and soft smile. "We'll become the force of change in the Pokémon world. Jess even went as far as to call me the Pokémon Princess too."_

_'It is a title that will suit you quite well over time,' replied Aurora. 'I shall help you become the Pokémon Princess.'_

6: Hardcore Training, Hardcore Gym

Once Richie had caught Thor, he and Relena went back to their temporary apartment in the coastal city where it was nice and air conditioned. As they entered the apartment building, the beads of sweat began to dry and stick to their skin. The young couple also began to show signs that had got a slight tan from being outside. But Relena was more focused on her hair as she examined it.

"Great, now I've got split ends," huffed Relena as she examined the hair at the end of her pony tail. "We gotta go back to the store and get some shampoo so I don't have to worry about having split ends while we're here on Ruby Island."

"Do you really need to worry about your hair now?" Richie asked Relena.

Relena gave Richie a careful glance avoiding giving Richie a glare for his question. For young Relena, she worried about her hair like any other girl would. Except normally her older sister Jessica would help her with her hair. But since Jessica wasn't there to help Relena, she would have to rely on what Jessica taught her and help from her Pokémon to at least help braid her hair into a ponytail.

"Yes, I do need to worry about my hair," Relena answered in a gentle tone. "Besides, girls always worry about their hair. Didn't your mother ever worry about her hair?"

"Uh, I guess so," answered Richie as he had a sweatdrop on his forehead.

"Alright then, get Thor out and we'll hit the store again," instructed Relena. "I'm also gonna need to get a sarong to wrap around my waist while we're there too."

Richie called out Thor from his Heal Ball and then was approached by Aurora.

'Thor, will you be kind as to ferry your trainer on your back while we're on land?' asked Aurora. 'I would prefer to ferry my own trainer on my back while we're on land.'

'What about travel to other islands if a boat cannot be found?' Thor asked Aurora.

'Then I will ferry him on my back,' answered Aurora. 'If he can find his own Water-type Pokémon to ferry him, then that would work too. But I will only ferry him across bodies of water and not on dry ground.'

'Very well then, I will tell him,' Thor said to Aurora as he slightly bowed his head.

'There's no need to tell him that,' Aurora said to Thor, 'I have made it perfectly clear to him and he has kept his word by capturing you.'

Thor sighed, shook his head and replied to Aurora,'I hope that I won't just be here to be his ferry across the land.'

Both Pokémon chuckled as their respective trainers were finally ready to go back to the store they were at before Richie caught his first two Pokémon. Richie locked the door to their apartment after Aurora and Thor exited last. Aurora wanted to ferry his trainer on his back but couldn't because he had to wait until they left the apartment building. Once they left the apartment, Aurora had Relena get on his back so he could have her ride on his back while Thor had Richie get on his back and both Pokémon set out for the main open-air department store on the island. As they arrived at the department store, Relena got off Aurora's back as did Richie getting off of Thor's back. Both trainers and their Pokémon entered the department store to search for the things Relena wanted to find. Thor, however, pulled aside to have a little talk with him.

'Is there a reason why you captured me?' Thor asked his trainer.

"Of course there's a reason why I captured you," Richie answered confidently. "I wanted to have a Raikou. I thought raising a Raikou would be really cool."

'You're not planning on using me to just be your ferry across the land?' Thor asked in a quizzical tone.

"Of course not," Richie answered cheerfully. "I intend to train you like any other Pokémon I catch."

Thor sighed in relief to hear Richie say that and both of them rejoined Relena and Aurora with Relena's shopping. Relena had found a type of shampoo that was claimed to be the best shampoo and could combat frizz and even split ends in the worst humidity like on Ruby Island. Getting the shampoo was the easy part; finding a sarong was a bit difficult because there many sarongs with bright colors, floral and tropical prints on them. Relena was like a small child in a candy store wanting try every single piece of candy. She was eager to try as many sarongs and model them for her boyfriend and their Pokémon. While Relena did that, Richie bought some more supplies. He purchased a few more TMs that Jessica did not include with 95 TMs she gave them.

"Man, I'm so tired and hungry," whined Richie as they finally entered the air conditioned apartment.

"Come on and don't be a wimp," Relena said cheerfully as she was wearing one of four sarongs she bought. "I think that Jessica will like the sarongs I bought. [Stomach growling] But you're right about one thing, we gotta eat; I'm about hungry too."

An hour after they ate, Relena went into their bedroom to get out the sarongs she bought. She planned on trying them on them model them to her boyfriend and maybe show Jessica a special sarong outfit she designed at the store. Relena then began her little fashion show after she took a shower and used the new shampoo she bought to deal with split ends and developing frizz problem. The first sarong she put on was a pink sarong with red and white hibiscus print over a light red one piece swimsuit with skirt on it. Relena had put the sarong around her waist and left her left leg exposed as she tied the ends of the sarong together like it was a tropical skirt. Relena then called out Michiru to help rebraid her hair. Michiru helped rebraid her hair and set both ribbons back in her hair.

'_Why are you doing this Relena_?' Michiru asked her trainer as she braided her trainer's hair. '_You know that Richie loves you. You don't really need to get his attention or affection from him like this._'

Relena rolled her eyes and then heard one of her favorite songs was on the radio and was quick to grab her iPhone with the Shazam app and was quick to get the song on her cellphone.

"Yay! Ride of Life!" exclaimed Relena as she began to sing along.

[Ride of Life by 4Him. ** : / www . youtube dot com/watch?v = mOg****_ frsgzo8]**

Relena began to sing the song. Outside of the bedroom, Richie was waiting patiently for the surprise that Relena had in store for him.

As he waited for Relena, he and Aurora heard Relena singing in the bedroom.

"Wow, she sings beautifully," said Richie as he heard his girlfriend singing.

'Yes she does,' agreed Aurora. 'She sings very beautifully.'

In the bedroom, Relena dialed the phone number for her sister, Jessica, back on Tsunami Island. Jessica answered her phone as she and Argon were gathering what belongings she was taking with her to Jason's loft and moving out of Sol Palace much to the protest of the other siblings.

"_Come on Jessica, don't be a fool,_" protested Samantha as Jessica answered the video call from her baby sister.

"Did I call at a bad time Jess?" Relena asked her sister Jessica.

"_Nah,_" answered Jessica with a wink. "_Where are you and your boyfriend at now?_"

"We're on Ruby Island right now," answered Relena.

"_Oooo, Ruby Island's like a huge pot of steam and humidity,_" said Jessica. "_I know they have a really famous shampoo that they make to control split ends and frizz._"

"Actually I bought some just recently," Relena informed Jessica proudly.

"_Good to know that, baby sister,_" said Jessica, "_so what else is up?_"

"I bought some sarongs to go with my swimsuits you bought me," Relena said cheerfully as she showed off the first sarong with the first swimsuit.

"_I like that,it makes you look a bit more attractive,_" Jessica said to Relena as she was walking to her bedroom to get last of the things she was taking with her.

'_**Hey Jessica, I got the box with your design notes and materials,**_' Argon informed his trainer. '_**Where do you want me to put it?**_'

"_In the trunk of my Mustang, Argon_," answered Jessica as she briefly looked to her shiny Tyranitar and then back to her baby sister. "_Sorry about that. I'm moving out of the palace and in with Jason at his loft._"

"I take the other siblings are trying to get you to stay in Sol Palace," guessed Relena.

Jessica sighed and replied, "_Yup, they want me to stay for the Pokémon League season._"

"I've seen that the Royal Cup is brutal," Relena said as she changed swimsuits and put on a different sarong to show her sister.

"_Well the only way you can get into the Royal Cup is two ways_," informed Jessica as she waited for Relena to show her the next sarong with another swimsuit. "_Get in the Top 8 at the Pokémon League if you have 6 badges or get all seven badges. And getting all seven badges is no easy task._"

Relena then came out with the next swimsuit and sarong combination. This combination was a royal blue swimsuit with a teal green sarong around her waist.

"_Uh, I don't think that teal green sarong would go well with the royal blue swimsuit_," said Jessica. "_I'd recommend that you use a neutral blue, maybe with nice print on it._"

Relena gave a slight nod and took the teal green sarong off her waist and then looked through her sarongs and found the sarong that Jessica recommended to match the royal blue swimsuit.

"_That's much better, baby sister,_" said Jessica as she gave a slight nod of the change of sarongs. "_Is there a sarong outfit you bought?_"

"Actually, I thought about trying to design one myself," answered Relena.

Jessica cocked an eye brow an interest.

"_Oh? Show me what you've got,_" requested Jessica.

Relena went into the bathroom and put on the sarong outfit she designed. At first she headed to the door and then decided not to show it because she didn't think Jessica would like it. It was a seafoam green sarong with hibiscus print, a jade green arm bangle, a Suicune choker carved from jade. She thought about it for a couple minutes before hearing Jessica calling out to her.

"_Come on baby sister, I wanna see this outfit you designed,_" Relena heard from the bathroom as Jessica called to her.

Relena then exited the bathroom and showed her sister the sarong outfit to Jessica.

"_Oh my, that's very lovely,_" Jessica with a smile on her face. "_I think you learned a thing or two from me._

"_But if you want some help on your journey, don't be afraid to call me,_" continued Jessica. "_Who knows, you might get some help from me along the way._"

"That would be great to hear," replied Relena.

"_Just don't forget that both of you need to avoid wearing your normal clothes and stay in your swimsuits or at least your sarong while you're on Ruby Island,_" instructed Jessica. "_But my recommendation to you and Richie would be to remain in your swimsuits... and for you to listen to your boyfriend too, Relena_."

Jessica pointed her index finger at her baby sister as she stressed to her that she needed to listen her boyfriend.

"Alright, alright, Jess. I'll listen to Richie," Relena said with a sweatdrop.

"_No one else looking in my room, Relena,_" said Jessica. "_You can put your swimsuit back on in front of me._"

Relena gave a nervous nod and changed backed into the swimsuit she was wearing and wrapped the blue sarong around her waist and looked to her older sister.

"What are you going to do after moving in with Jason?" asked Relena.

"_Go with a fashion model from the Unova region whose also a gym leader as well,_" answered Jessica. "_She saw the outfits that I designed for you and your boyfriend and visited me later in the afternoon. She asked to see some of my designs and she was impressed with them. She also asked me to guide her throughout the Atlantica Islands as well._"

"I see," replied Relena.

"_I gotta let you go, baby sister,_" Jessica said to Relena as Argon could be heard thundering back to her room. "_Argon's thundering back to my room. I love you baby sister and I'll see ya around._"

Two days later, Relena and Richie had left the apartment and headed into the steamy jungle. Before leaving, the young couple left the key for the apartment and told the landlord that if Jessica came by, she could use it while they were training in the areas around Ruby Island in preparation for the gym leader. As they left Ruby City, the couple noticed that were not many paved roads and saw many Grass and Water-Type Pokémon as well as Normal-Type Pokémon. As Aurora and Thor padded through the area known as Razor Jungle, both of their trainers were getting quite hot and sweaty. Thor looked to Aurora and said, 'We need to let our trainers cool off in a river or a lake,' suggested Thor. 'We don't want our trainers become sick from the heat.'

'Agreed,' Aurora said as he and Thor noticed each others trainers were feeling really hot and sweaty as they were about ready to fall off.

Thor spotted a lake, looked to Aurora and jerked his head towards the lake he spotted. Aurora saw the lake and gave a slight nod as he and Thor headed to the lake to get their trainers cooled down.

'I must say, Aurora, these young humans seem frail,' commented Thor.

'It's probably because of the weather here,' Aurora replied to Thor. 'They're not completely used to all this heat and humidity. Let's just get these two to the lake so they can cool off and let the other Pokémon out to cool off as well.'

Thor gave a slight nod as they reached they reached the lake and dropped their trainers in a shallow part of the lake and released their trainers' Pokémon from their Pokéballs in the shade of a large tree at the lake's edge. For Relena and Richie, this was a well deserved relief as they needed to cool down after spending three hours in the hot morning sun. For Relena, she wanted swim at every chance she could get and this presented a good opportunity for her exercise and interact with the Water Pokémon in the lake. Richie was just glad that they stopped to cool down. He looked to see that Zippo and Sparky were resting comfortably under a tree with Relena's own Pokémon. Interacting with the Water Pokémon in the lake hadn't come to his mind until he saw a shiny Horsea with a depressed look on her face. Richie approached the female shiny Horsea.

"What's wrong little Horsea?" Richie asked the sad and lonely Horsea.

'_I was left here by a trainer that said I was worthless and pathetic,_' answered the Horsea. '_None of the other Water Pokémon like me. I miss my parents._'

"That's sad to hear," Richie said sympathetically as he too missed his own parents. "What were your parents like?"

'_My father is a proud and mighty Salamence,_' began Horsea, '_and my mother is a beautiful shiny Kingdra on the council of Dragon Pokémon on Draco Island. I was taken away by the trainer that said I was worthless and pathetic who dropped me off here._'

Richie thought about it for a moment as he was eager to keep getting new Pokémon for his team. The Horsea looked at him and some reason felt like she had a connection with him.

'_Something tells me that you feel the same way I do,_' the Horsea said to Richie.

"Yeah," Richie replied softly. "My stepfather lied to me and said that my mother was dead and that father was in jail."

'_That's awful to hear him say that_,' said Horsea. '_Why not join together? I may not be a Dragon-type Pokémon right now, but I am required to travel to Draco Island at least once in my lifetime. Besides, you and I can help each other out, am I right?_'

Richie gave a slight nod and then looked to Thor as he called out to him, "Hey Thor, I need a Pokéball, can you give me one of them?"

Thor gave a slight nod and flicked over to him one of the Dive Balls he bought while Relena was shopping for shampoo and sarongs to go with her swimsuits. Richie caught the Dive Ball and lightly tapped the shiny female Horsea on her forehead. The Horsea went in the Dive Ball with a joyful smile on her face. Three shakes and a confirmation click later, Richie caught the female shiny Horsea he named Ginger. While Richie was interacting with his new Water Pokémon, Relena was certainly interacting with the other Water Pokémon in the lake. The Water Pokémon were certainly happy to interact with Relena and certainly enjoyed the attention and the affection she gave them. One particular Water Pokémon wasn't impressed with Relena and challenged her to a race around the lake, in which she accepted. The race ended in a draw as the female shiny Buizel was thoroughly intrigued with Relena's skills at swimming and asked to join her crew. A female shiny Oshawott was also eager to join up with Relena as well because she wanted to join as well and shoved the Buizel away. Relena motioned for both Water Pokémon to quiet down as she told them that she would take both Pokémon with her.

A couple days later, Relena and Richie were certainly hard at work training their Pokémon so they could challenge the gym leader for their gym badge as a pair challenging the Pokémon League of their home region. As they trained in Razor Jungle, Relena and Richie spotted an intense battle as four Grass-Type Pokémon were surrounding a lone shiny Trapinch. The four Grass Pokémon were a Pansage normally from the Unova region, a Sunflora normally from the Johto region and two Nuzleaf Pokémon normally from the Hoenn region.

'_Why won't you just give up you stupid Ground Pokémon?_' demanded one of the Nuzleafs as it was panting after being chewed on by the Hoenn Ground Pokémon's Bug Bite attack.

'_Because I'm trying to get away from you gang of Grass-Type Pokémon_,' answered the female shiny Trapinch.

'_Enough talking,_' ordered Sunflora. '_Get that little Ground-Type... NOW!_'

The Sunflora prepared to use her Razor Leaf against the forest green shiny Trapinch and the Nuzleafs had taken in sunlight and were preparing to use their Solarbeam attack. The female shiny Trapinch then looked to see what the Pansage was doing as wasn't doing much as it stood ready to provide aid to his comrades. The shiny Trapinch took a deep breath and then used it's Signal Beam attack at the Nuzleafs that were ready to use their Solarbeam attack. Both Nuzleafs were caught off guard by the Trapinch's Signal Beam attack and were knocked out instantly because of their weakness to the Bug-type attack due to being Grass and Dark-type Pokémon. The Pansage then jumped into the battle to join his Sunflora leader. He then used his Vine Whip in hopes to ensnare the shiny female Trapinch. The Trapinch saw the incoming Vine Whip attack and went underground to dodge both Vine Whip and Razor Leaf attacks that came at her.

'That Trapinch is really fast if I ever saw a Trapinch,' commented Thor as he saw the female Trapinch dodge two attacks with relative ease.

"One of that Trapinch's parents must've bred with it's mate while holding a Power Anklet," guessed Relena. "Because a normal Trapinch doesn't move that fast."

'Agreed,' said Aurora as the three Pokémon and their trainers watched the battle as it was unfolding.

"But I think it's time to end battle now," Relena said as she readied a Quick Ball and waited for the shiny Trapinch to resurface.

The shiny female Trapinch did resurface and Relena threw the Quick Ball right as she resurfaced and the shiny Trapinch was captured in the Quick Ball much to the shock of the Pansage and Sunflora. After three shakes and a confirmation click, the shiny female Trapinch was captured and Relena was quick to throw Kagura's Heal Ball.

"Go Kagura! Take on those awful Grass Pokémon!" exclaimed Relena as her recently captured Snow Maiden Pokémon was ready for battle.

'_I'm all over it,_' Kagura said as she went in to ensure that the Sunflora and Pansage did not release her new companion and smash the Quick Ball she was captured in.

"Kagura, use Ice Beam to get there attention," ordered Relena.

'_You got it_,_' _acknowledged Kagura as used her Ice Beam to get the attention of the two remaining Grass Pokémon that were still standing.

Before the Sunflora and Pansage could get to the Quick Ball in which the forest green colored Trapinch was safely in, they were hit by a powerful Ice Beam that had it's power boosted by a hold item called a NeverMeltIce. Both the Pansage and Sunflora never saw the Ice Beam coming before it was too late. Kagura then picked up the Quick Ball and took it back to Relena as she brushed past the two frozen Grass-Type Pokémon and two knocked out Nuzleafs..

'_Serves you right you big bullies,_' Kagura snarled at the two frozen statues of Sunflora and Pansage and the two knocked out Nuzleafs. Kagura floated back to Relena with Quick Ball in hand.

'_Here Relena, our new teammate,_' Kagura said to her trainer as she handed Relena the Quick Ball with the shiny female Trapinch in it.

"Thank you Kagura," said Relena as she gave a slight nod to the snow maiden Pokémon and then let her new Pokémon out of its Quick Ball. "Come out... Sora!"

The ant pit Pokémon came out it's Quick Ball and looked to it's trainer and replied, '_I thank you for saving me from those awful Grass Pokémon. As for the name you gave me, Sora was it, I rather like that name. It means 'sky,' right?_'

"Yes, that's right," answered Relena with a smile.

'_That's good to know,_' said Sora. '_Because I certainly dream of flying one day, as a Flygon. I hope that you can help reach that dream to fly high in the sky as my name means._'

"And I seek to become the champion of the Atlantica Islands with my boyfriend together," replied Relena. "It looks like we can help each other, wouldn't you say Sora?"

'_Indeed,_' agreed Sora as Relena approached her and put the Lucky Egg that Michiru once had when she was training to evolve into her current form as a Gardevoir. '_What is this that you've given to me? It looks like an egg of some sort._'

'_It's called a Lucky Egg,_' explained Michiru after she let herself out of her Cherish Ball. '_I used to have that Lucky Egg as a Ralts. It helped me to evolve into the Gardevoir you see before you. It doubles the experience you gain in battle._'

'_Really?_' asked Sora as she was now interested in the hold item that Relena gave her. '_That sounds really cool. It'll certainly help to reach my goal of becoming a Flygon._'

Richie then approached Relena and asked, "Do you think we have the right amount of Pokémon to take on the gym leader of Ruby Island?"

"I think so Richie," answered Relena. "Now we just need to do some training with our new Pokémon and figure out how to beat them."

'The question is do you know who the gym leader is and what they specialize in?' asked Thor.

Relena and Richie stood there for a few minutes to think if they knew who the gym leader was and unfortunately had no clue who it was.

"Sorry Thor, we don't know who the gym leader here is," answered Richie.

'Well, both of you happen to be in luck as I know who the gym leader here is,' Thor said proudly. 'He's known as Sergeant Thomas Goldstein and he specializes in Pokémon with high physical attack.'

'_Guess that means that we've got our work cut out for us, eh Relena?_' asked Sora.

"I guess you're right," answered Relena. "Well then, let's move on to the next area of Ruby Island and continue our training there."

Everyone gave a slight nod of agreement and they went on to the next area of Ruby Island.

Within a week, all of Relena and Richie's Pokémon were on a good training regime. Sora was getting close to evolution, Relena's other Pokémon were growing at a nice pace too. Isuzu, Relena's shiny female Buizel, was also growing at a nice pace too. She carried an Everstone around her neck because she informed Relena that she did not want to evolve into her next stage evolved form, Floatzel. Kagura was becoming quite the best friend and sister to Michiru as they grew close to each other. Aurora on the other hand was still being overprotective with his trainer as he never left Relena's side for a minute. Relena did not mind having Aurora at her side; in fact she enjoyed it as she felt that Aurora was more of a father figure to her than her own father to whom she was born to.

"Aurora, I'm glad that you protect me and stay at my side," began Relena as she looked to the Aurora Pokémon. "You and I have gotten closer to each other and I do love you Aurora."

Aurora rubbed his right cheek on Relena's left cheek as he replied, 'And I love too.' But what Relena would say next would surprise him.

"I mean, I love you as if you were my father," added Relena.

This last statement was certainly a surprise to Aurora as he never heard her say that to him as did someone hiding in a bush a mile away using a listening device to hear what Relena and Aurora had to say. The man threw the listening device, smashing it in fury and getting the attention of the woman who was accompanying him.

Aurora's eyes softened as he recovered from the initial shock. He looked to his trainer and set his left paw on Relena's right shoulder and lightly pressed his face on Relena's face as he said, 'I would be honored to be your father and protect you as if you were my own daughter.' Aurora needed no response from Relena as she was quick to wrap her arms around Aurora's neck lightly and kissed his right cheek. Aurora then gently wrapped his left front leg around Relena's waist and closed his eyes for a brief moment.

Three more days had passed and Sora had evolved into a Vibrava after a trainer battle went down right to the wire and Sora got Relena out of a tight squeeze while battling a Shiftry. Sora's Signal Beam was a key factor in winning the trainer battle. Both Relena and Richie were certainly making good money from trainers thanks in part to having their Pokémon holding either an Amulet Coin or a Luck Incense that Richie bought as well. It was at a hefty price, but Richie told Relena that it would help them in the long run and he was right. However, Sora began to show a slight... change of attitude.

"What's wrong with you Sora?" Relena asked the recently evolved shiny Vibration Pokémon. "Why are you acting like this?"

'_Why you ask?_' countered Sora. '_Because you're now holding me back._'

"How am I holding you back?" asked Relena.

Sora narrowed her eyes at her trainer but had a shiver run up her spine

'_Oh my poor misguided human girl,_' answered Sora as she regained her composure, '_You're all too easy to fool. Why should I have to obey a spoiled little brat like you?_'

"I AM NOT A SPOILED BRAT!" roared Relena.

After that Relena and Sora did not speak to each other. Sora calling her own trainer a spoiled little brat certainly set Relena off. Sora wasn't allowed to sleep in the tent with the other Pokémon because of her offensive insult to Relena. As Sora was sleeping outside the tent she tossed and turned as she was having the same nightmare she started to have after evolving into a Vibrava.

'_She wouldn't understand what I'm going through,_' Sora said to herself unaware that Aurora was listening to her. '_Especially since I have to deal with this new power I have. Draco Meteor isn't something to take lightly. That little spoiled brat doesn't understand what I'm going through._'

'How sure are you about that?' Aurora asked from the entrance of the Pokémon's tent. 'Have you tried to let Relena understand what you're going through?'

'_Mind your own business Aurora,_' snarled Sora. '_Why don't you go play 'parent and child' with that little brat?! You're practically at her side 24/7._'

'I see that you forgot the promise you made with Relena,' Aurora said to Sora. 'Is she not helping you fly high in the sky? Is she not helping you to evolve into a Flygon?'

Sora glared angrily at Aurora and then decided to fly away from the camp as she needed time to think. She was wondering if she made the right decision in going with Relena. She was glad that Relena saved her from the gang of Grass-Type Pokémon and even giving her the name Sora. But her nightmare was bothering her and she couldn't sleep. Right then and there she just had to find a way to think and see if going with Relena was really a great idea. As Sora flew away from the camp, she noticed Relena walking back to the camp.

'_What are doing out here?_' Sora asked Relena trying but failing to maintain her tough and disobedient facade. '_I thought you would be lying with your 'father' or boyfriend._'

"I couldn't sleep," answered Relena as she looked to the shiny Vibration Pokémon. "What about you?"

Sora sighed in defeat and answered, '_Fine, I couldn't sleep either._'

"Wanna go into the forest and talk about it?" asked Relena as she looked to her disobedient Ground/Dragon Pokémon.

Sora rolled her eyes and snorted, '_Whatever. Do what you want._'

The seven year-old trainer walked with her Pokémon into the forest and they began to talk.

"Sora, I wanna know what's bothering you," Relena pleaded with the shiny Vibration Pokémon. "You can tell me what's wrong. I wanna help you if I can."

Sora sighed as she didn't want to talk about it, but she had a feeling that Relena might pester her if she didn't talk about it.

'_I... I'm a bit afraid I guess,_' confessed Sora.

"Eh, what's there to be afraid of?" asked Relena as she looked at her Ground/Dragon Pokémon with a bit of interest.

'_The new powers I have,_' answered Sora. '_Being a Dragon-type Pokémon might be too much of a burden for me._'

"Your Dragon-type powers, they can't be that awful, can they?" Relena asked cheerfully as they were walking or flying along in Sora's case.

Before Sora could answer, she noticed a beam screaming towards them and recognized the attack as she moved to tackle Relena.

'_Hyper Beam!_' exclaimed Sora. '_Take cover!_'

Sora then tackled her trainer and shielded her with her body. Sora gritted her teeth as the Hyper Beam attack missed by a meter. The shiny Vibrava felt a slight burning sensation as the Hyper Beam passed over her body.

'_Stupid Hyper Beam,_' snarled Sora as she gritted her teeth. '_I really hate that Hyper Beam attack. It's a pain to recover from._'

'_You're just an inexperienced Dragon-type Pokémon,_' said a certain Fire/Flying-type Pokémon that fired the Hyper Beam. '_So don't get any ideas about defeating me._'

Sora and Relena got up and saw a black shiny Charizard and a certain person she never wanted to see again after her grandparents kicked him out of Sol Palace. He was six foot five inches, a muscular 209 pounds, farmer's tan complexion and didn't seem to heed the locals' advice on the proper attire to wear on Ruby Island as he wore a black long sleeve shirt with what appeared to be the logo of an alcohol company with something else inappropriate to be wearing in front of a 7 year-old girl, let alone his youngest daughter.

"Hey there," replied the man, known as Takashi Kaiou as he was accompanied by the woman who was his mistress.

Relena narrowed her eyes at the sight of her father and his mistress because she never wanted to them again. Despite the fact she was a baby when Takashi was kicked out, Relena decided that she never wanted to see her biological father again, nor his mistress. Sora looked at Relena with a confused look on her face as she looked to the two adult humans and the trainer she called a little spoiled brat.

'_Um... I take it that you those two humans_,' assumed Sora.

"Yes," replied Relena as her eyes never softened for a second. "That's my deadbeat father and his mistress. Margarita, I think."

"Why you little ungrateful brat," snarled Takashi's mistress as she was about storm up to Relena and grab her by her neck to strangle her.

"Easy Margarita, this is just a grave misunderstanding," Takashi said calmly.

'_I wouldn't call that Hyper Beam from your Charizard a grave misunderstanding_,' sassed Sora as she glared at the shiny Charizard. '_I am after all her Pokémon and not a wild one._'

'_It doesn't change the fact I'm the strongest Dragon Pokémon_,' countered Charizard.

"You're a Fire/Flying-type Pokémon," said Relena.

'_Just because your second Egg Group is Dragon, doesn't automatically make you a Dragon-type Pokémon_,' added Sora.

"Egg Group?" asked Relena in confusion.

"It's how Pokémon are grouped for breeding purposes," explained Takashi. "Most Pokémon are grouped that way. The Pokémon that are considered legendary have to breed with their own kind. For example your precious... 'father' has to breed with a female Suicune and cannot breed with any other Pokémon he might be able to breed with.

"If I had to make a guess with your Suicune," continued Takashi.

"Aurora," interrupted Relena. "His name is Aurora. And he's a much better father to me than you will ever be."

Takashi clenched his fist and gritted his teeth at his youngest daughter's comment. Sora noticed that and gave a slight grin.

'_**That human man must've done something to to make the young human say what she said to him**_,' thought Sora with a big grin.

Takashi then smiled to cover up his embarrassment, but he had to get his youngest daughter with him before Aurora showed up to protect.

"Look, your mother has been lying to you," began Takashi, hoping that Relena would be fooled. "She was going to other men hoping to be satisfied."

'Do you honestly that your youngest daughter is that stupid?' asked a certain Aurora Pokémon as he slammed down his left paw down on Margarita's right shoulder much to her fright.

Takashi turned and saw that Aurora had arrived from behind him without him knowing it. Relena breathed a sigh of relief as Aurora showed up.

Takashi rolled his eyes and then said, "Why won't you believe your own father? Besides, mothers who bear children always lie. They'll do anything to keep the children from the father."

"That's a lie," snarled Relena as she saw through her father's lie. "How dare you insult my mother. You were never meant to be a father to me, Jessica or any of my other siblings."

"I heard that they all disowned you," said Takashi. "Even your precious sister Jessica disowned you too."

"Jess, never disowned me," shot back Relena. "She and mother had to get me out of Sol Palace."

'_In other words they disowned you too,_' added Takashi's Charizard. '_Sending you away is another way of saying that they disowned you._'

Relena narrowed her eyes at her father's Charizard after he said that. She knew that Jessica and her mother would never do such a thing like disown her. But her human father crossed the line when he accused her mother of disowning her and the worst thing ever was saying that her mother was a liar.

"No one accuses my mother of being a liar and GETS AWAY WITH IT EITHER!" roared Relena as she now had fire in her eyes.

Sora saw the fire in Relena's eyes and smiled as she gave herself a slight nod.

'_Maybe she can be the one who can help me fly high in the sky,_' Sora said to herself before floating over to Relena' side.

Takashi's Charizard then used his Blast Burn attack to try and stop Sora from interfering. Sora sidestepped the Blast Burn attack and then sent rays of light in the shape of gems at the shiny Charizard much to Relena's surprise.

"Whoa, that's Power Gem!" exclaimed Relena in amazement as Power Gem did major damage to Charizard. "I didn't think that Vibrava could learn Power Gem at all."

'_My mother was born in the Dream World of the Atlantica Islands,_' explained Sora. '_I was born in the Dream World as well. When I was born in the Dream World, I inherited the knowledge of the Power Gem attack._'

"Amazing," Relena said to Sora with a big smile on her face. "You're simply amazing Sora!"

'_I am amazing,_' agreed the shiny Vibration Pokémon.

"Fine then," snarled Takashi. "Charizard, use your Blast Burn on both of them."

Takashi's Charizard was shocked to hear his trainer order that on his own child. He sighed in defeat, shook his head in regret and hoped that this attack wouldn't connect on it's intended targets. Charizard used his Blast Burn at Relena and Sora and hoped they would get out of the way. Sora this time took a stand as she began to glow.

'_You won't be hurting either of us,_' said Sora as she then unleashed an attack that a Dragon-type Pokémon could use.

The attack started glowing on Sora's chest and then formed an orb that broke into small meteors and struck Charizard and Takashi causing him to clutch the right side of his face in agony. The mistress then ran over to Takashi, recalled his Charizard and pulled him away from Relena and Sora.

"Ahh!" screamed Takashi as he held the right side of face. "Damn it! My face! It burns!"

The mistress glared at Relena and said, "You'll pay for what you've done. You hear me! You'll pay!"

A week later, the young couple returned to Ruby City after a month of training around the island. Sora's attitude had greatly improved and she had gained a couple more levels and was ready for battle at Sgt. Goldstein's gym. Thor, Sparky, Zippo and Ginger had also grown considerably as well. Ginger evolved into a Seadra and was showing promise. Richie had been getting close to his Pokémon as well. Sparky would make occasional hits on Relena only to be driven away by Aurora or Richie would pull him by his left ear.

Once the pair and their three Pokémon out of their Pokéballs arrived at Ruby City, they went back to their apartment and rested after being out in the wilderness and spent a night on the town after a two hour nap. The young couple left most of their Pokémon there except for Aurora and Thor. Aurora had his reason for going with them because he protected his trainer/adopted 'daughter'. Thor came along because he was following Aurora's example a little bit. The couple's date in town, happened to start at a diner where they got something simple, a burger, some fries and different flavored shakes for both of them. After they ate dinner, Richie decided that they needed to have some fun and took Relena's hand with a grin on his face as he remembered that one of his favorite things to do was play laser tag with the younger members of the resort staff at the Emerald Crown resort when they had their laser tag tournaments three times a year. The resort staff once in a while went to Ruby Island for their tournaments and told Richie about the place.

"Well Relena, here we are," Richie said as he showed Relena the place they going to.

"A laser tag place?" Relena asked Richie in confusion. "How is this romantic? I was kinda hoping for someplace romantic. Like maybe a private cabana for two, maybe with a root beer float for both of us to share and a small platter of fruit to feed each other." Relena had gone from confused to pressing her body on Richie's body and had a sweet voice as she tried to get Richie to change his mind.

"But I haven't played laser tag in a while and I wanna play laser tag," protested Richie.

"And I wanna do something romantic," Relena countered in a sweet and silky voice as she had her arms wrapped around Richie's waist. "We'll do laser tag at another time."

"And miss out on playing against all the Ghost-type Pokémon they have there?" asked Richie with a smirk on his face.

Relena looked down in defeat and sighed as she relented as they proceeded to enter the laser tag place with Aurora and Thor behind him.

Two hours later, the young couple exited the laser tag place with Relena carrying out a stuffed Victini and a beaming smile on her face.

"I'm telling you that was a lucky shot from that Haunter," moaned Richie.

"Oh, pipe down Richie," Relena said with a grin on her face. "Thanks to you for acting as my shield, I got this adorable stuffed Victini. So cute."

'I hope he's not gonna whine about it all tonight,' Thor said with a sweatdrop on his face.

"Now, let's do that one romantic thing that I wanna do," Relena requested to Richie while adding pouting Pikachu face with great success.

Richie sighed and said, "Alright, we'll do what you wanna do."

Relena threw her hands up and almost threw her stuffed Pokémon away had it not landed on Aurora's back.

The next morning, Relena and Richie stood in front of the Ruby Island gym and heard shouts from drill instructors and then entered the gym to find it looking like a boot camp for training recruits for the Royal Tsunami Defense Forces.

"Push ups! 50 sets more little girls!" shouted the first drill instructor as Relena and Richie tried to slip past him but got caught. "Where do you think you're going little boy and girl? ATEN-SION!"

Relena and Richie stood at attention as the drill instructor approached them and then circled them as he inspected them.

"What's a couple of kids doing are at the Ruby Island gym?" asked the first drill instructor as he circled the young couple.

"Well we're looking to challenge the Pokémon League and we need a badge from here," explained Relena.

"You will address me as 'sir'!" exclaimed the drill instructor. "Do you get me?!"

"Sir, yes sir!" exclaimed both Relena and Richie.

"Now then if wanna face Sgt. Goldstein, you're gonna have to go through me first," said the first drill instructor. "Recruits, stand at attention. We got us a couple kids who think they can take down the Sarge for the Ruby Sword badge."

The recruits were quick to stand up and when the drill instructor said that Relena and Richie were trying to challenge the gym leader, they laughed mockingly at the young couple.

"I'll you both on separately, but I need to see your Pokédexes before I take you both on,"said the drill instructor.

Relena then produced a Pokédex from travel bag and showed it to the drill instructor.

"That Pokédex is for both of us as we registered together as a pair," explained Relena as she handed the Pokédex to the drill instructor.

"Okay, let's see now," began the drill instructor as he looked at the Pokédex to make sure who had registered and would be trying to challenge Sgt Goldstein. What he saw made his eyes widen like dinner plates."

"Ah Houndour!" exclaimed the drill instructor. "M-My apologies Princess. I didn't realize you would be challenging the Pokémon League. But I wasn't expecting you and the son of Rena Henderson to join together.

"At any rate, if you want to face the Sarge, you gotta get past me and the other two drill instructors," said the first drill instructor as readied the first Pokéball. "Both of you will use one Pokémon each in order to face me since you two were registered as a pair."

'Seems fair enough, don't you think?' Thor asked Richie

Richie gave a slight nod in agreement and readied Ginger's Dive Ball and was ready.

"It seems you're ready," observed the drill instructor. "Let's get this underway."

The drill instructor hefted his first Pokéball and then threw it out.

"Go Steelix!" exclaimed the drill instructor. "Let's show these kids how the Ruby Island gym works."

'_I'm ready for battle Sarge!_' exclaimed Steelix.

Richie looked at the Pokédex that Relena tossed to him and scanned Steelix with the Pokédex. The Pokédex gave him the information on Steelix and Richie gave a slight nod as he was sure that he made the right decision in choosing Ginger.

"Go Ginger!" exclaimed Richie as he threw the Dive Ball and a shiny Seadra came out of it.

Steelix roared in laughter after Ginger was released from her Dive Ball.

'_Ginger?_' Steelix asked the Seadra mockingly. '_What kind of name is that for a Water-type Pokémon like you? That name is more for a Growlithe... or even a Lilipup!_'

Ginger had a vein popping on her forehead as she took insult to Steelix's taunt.

'_I happen to like the name Ginger_,' countered Ginger. '_Now you're gonna regret making fun of my name._'

"Alright Steelix, use Iron Tail," ordered the drill instructor.

'_I'm coming for you!_' exclaimed Steelix as his tail has glowing and was about slam it down on Ginger. '_Think fast... Ginger!_'

"Ginger, use Agility and then Hydro Pump!" countered Richie.

'_I'm all over it!_' exclaimed Ginger as she used her Agility to dodge the Iron Tail from Steelix and then used her Hydro Pump. '_How about you try to think fast, Steelix!_'

The Hydro Pump attack connected on Steelix but didn't knock him out like Richie had hoped it would do. He silently wanted to kick himself for not giving Ginger that Mystic Water hold item he found on the beach the night before.

"Steelix, use Double Edge," ordered the drill instructor.

Steelix did as he was ordered and connected with a powerful Double Edge attack. Ginger saw that the Steelix wasn't even phased with recoil that the Double Edge attack was supposed to inflict. Richie was surprised by this as well.

"How come the recoil from that Double Edge attack didn't phase Steelix?" Richie asked in shock.

'_It's all thanks to a little ability known as Rock Head, boy,_' answered Steelix. '_My Rock Head ability negates any recoil blow backs I might suffer from attacks Double Edge and other such attacks._'

'_I guess that explains a lot,_' added Ginger.

'_Oh and don't think that your little Poison Point ability will affect me because it won't,_' said Steelix.

'_I don't have the Poison Point ability,_' shot back Ginger. '_My ability is Sniper._'

"Alright Steelix, let's give them an expected surprise," said the drill instructor. "Use your Thunder Fang attack!"

"What the?!" asked Richie in shock.

'_What do I do now Richie?_' asked Ginger.

"Use your Ice Beam attack and aim for his mouth," ordered Richie.

Ginger was all too eager to comply and fired the Ice Beam at Steelix's mouth creating an ice muzzle for the Iron Snake Pokémon.

"Now use your Scald attack and finish him off," said Richie as he wanted to keep the momentum he had going.

'_You got it Richie,_' replied Ginger as she used her Scald attack on the Steel/Ground type Pokémon.

Steelix fell to the ground hard and with circles in his eyes as one of the trainees stepped up and announced, "Steelix is unable to battle, Seadra wins!"

'_Just because my name is Ginger, doesn't mean that I'm weak,_' Ginger said to the fallen Steelix before it was recalled.

"Not bad kids," said the drill instructor as he threw his second Pokéball. "But try this out for size. Go Machoke!"

Relena then stepped in and set her hand on Richie's shoulder and said, "Ginger needs to rest. Let me handle Machoke."

Richie give a slight nod and recalled Ginger to her Dive Ball.

"You did a great job out there Ginger," Richie said to his shiny Seadra in her Dive Ball.

Relena took a battle stance and grabbed Michiru's Cherish Ball as she said, "Go Michiru, bring us victory!"

The shiny Gardevoir opened her eyes slowly as she looked at the drill instructor and his Machoke as her Amulet Coin glistened in the sun.

'_I will bring victory,_' Michiru said as she eyed her opponent. '_Come on, let's go._'

However the drill instructor's Machoke just laughed at Hoenn Psychic Embrace Pokémon.

'_Oh I'll go at it with you,_' replied Machoke with a big grin on his face. '_Could I have a little dance with the prom queen?_'

The drill instructor had a sweatdrop on his forehead as his Machoke made the one mistake he would regret. He shook his head and Relena gave Michiru the order that seal the deal for their victory.

"Michiru use your Psychic attack and seal the victory for us," ordered Relena.

'_You read my mind Princess... I mean Relena,_' acknowledged Michiru as her entire body glowed. '_You wanted to have a dance? Here's the dance you wanted!_'

Machoke was glowing from being exposed to Michiru's Psychic attack. He was made to twirl, do a triple axle... even do a little of Gungnam Style dance and finally slammed down Machoke on the floor with circle in his eyes.

'_That was quite a dance with the prom queen,_' stuttered Machoke before passing out.

Michiru glared at the fainted Machoke, crossed her arms across her chest and looked away from him.

'_Humph,_' said Michiru as she was angry at the Machoke for insinuating that she was nothing more someone's symbol of beauty before looking at Machoke with one eye. '_Looks like this prom queen put you in your place._'

The drill instructor sighed and handed Relena and Richie the prize money they won from him. The young proceeded on to find another set of trainees crawling under a barbed wire obstacle course and a female drill instructor standing to far right shouting instructions to the trainees.

"Little kids we've got an hour before you get to go to the chow hall!" shouted the female drill instructor before spotting the pair and then getting a message from the first drill instructor that the youngest daughter of the Kaiou royal family and the son of Rena Henderson were heading her way. "Trainees, finish up and form the boundary of a ring for Pokémon battles!"

The trainees were quick to finish the obstacle course and form a ring. The female drill instructor then stood at the far end of the ring and motioned for three of the trainees to make an entrance for young pair coming her way. Once Relena and Richie saw the makeshift ring and approached and entered it.

"Welcome to the young pair challenging Sgt. Goldstein's gym," said the female drill instructor. "I hope you don't think that you'll be getting by me that easily.

'_The first drill instructor had two stupid Pokémon that made of two of my companions_,' replied Sparky.

"Well little Pikachu, my Pokémon are a little more disciplined than the first guy," informed the female drill instructor before her Seviper popped out her Pokéball.

'_Did that stupid Machoke call one of your female companions a prom queen?_' asked the female Seviper.

Michiru then popped out of her Cherish Ball and answered, '_Yes, he called me a prom queen because my body looks like some of those ballroom dresses that some of those rich human females wear._'

The female Seviper smacked her tail on her head in irritation as she huffed, '_That stupid moron. I'm going to have a talk with him later._'

'_I would appreciate that if you would do that,_' Michiru said to Seviper as she slightly bowed

"Ahem, let's get to this battle if we would," said the female drill instructor as she brought attention back to what was supposed to take place. "Both of you will use two Pokémon while I use four Pokémon. So both of you will need to choose your Pokémon wisely while I use the four Pokémon I have with me."

Richie choose Sparky and Zippo, even though it was still a Charmander. Relena choose to use her 'father' Aurora and Kagura for this battle and gave Aurora the Mystic Water that Richie intended to use with Ginger and had Michiru give Kagura her Amulet Coin for the battle. Once the selections were made Relena and Richie gave each other a slight nod and then looked to the female drill instructor with an eager smile on their faces.

"I take that you two are ready for battle," assumed the female drill instructor as she readied two Pokéballs. "Very well then. Go Tauros and Sandslash!"

"Go Aurora," ordered Relena as the Aurora Pokémon leapt over his trainer and took a ready stance.

'I am ready for battle,' said Aurora.

"Alright Zippo! Time to put all that training all that to good use!" exclaimed Richie as he threw Zippo's Quick Ball and released the Kanto Fire-type starter.

'_I'm ready for battle myself,_' said an enthusiastic Zippo.

"How very interesting," the female drill instructor said with a grin on her face. "Sandslash use Mud Slap on that Charmander and Tauros and use Take Down on that Suicune."

'_We're all over it ma'am,_' Tauros and Sandslash replied in unison.

"Zippo, use Brick Break on Tauros," ordered Richie.

'_Got it,_' acknowledged Zippo as he charged at the Tauros intent on hitting Aurora.

"Aurora use Scald and intercept that Mud Slap attack," ordered Relena.

'I gotcha,' replied Aurora as he used his Scald to intercept the Mud Slap flung from Sandslash.

For Zippo, it wasn't easy to land a hit on the stampeding Tauros as it dodged and taunted Zippo.

'_I'm over here little Lizard Pokémon,_' taunted Tauros. '_Oops, ya almost had me. Ya gotta be faster to have a chance to hit me._'

'_Richie, what about using that new Unova attack you taught me last week?_' Zippo asked Richie.

"Yeah, Zippo use Flame Charge!" exclaimed Richie.

Zippo began to stomp the ground with his feet and produced flames as he launched himself at Tauros that had been taunting him as asked with gusto, '_Is this fast enough for you?!_'

'_Eh, what the Houndour_?!' asked Tauros as he was shocked to see Zippo launching himself at him.

Zippo connected with a powerful Flame Charge and it did more than just damage Tauros, but raised his speed as well as do a little more damage thanks in part to the Charcoal around his neck.

"These kids are good," the female drill instructor said to herself.

"Now Zippo, use Brick Break on Tauros," Richie ordered his Charmander.

" Aurora, use Scald on Sandslash," Relena ordered her Aurora Pokémon.

Both attacks connected with their intended targets and knocked them both out.

'_Gah! Never thought I would be taken down by a little Charmander,_' Tauros said as he fell in defeat.

Once both Pokémon fell on the ground in defeat, the female drill instructor recalled both fallen Pokémon and then readied her next two Pokéballs.

"Go Fearow and Seviper!" exclaimed the second drill instructor as she tossed her last two Pokéballs up and released a shiny Beak Pokémon and the shiny Pit Snake Pokémon that spoke to Michiru earlier.

'_Where's Embrace Pokémon I spoke to earlier?_' asked Seviper. '_I was hoping to face her in battle._'

"Come back Aurora," said Relena as the Aurora Pokémon came as told to. "You did well... father."

Relena kissed Aurora on his left cheek and then grabbed a Heal Ball and threw it up.

"Go Kagura," said Relena as the Sinnoh Snow Maiden Pokémon came out.

'_What? You're not the Gardevoir I spoke to earlier,_' Seviper said in disappointment.

'_Sorry to disappoint you Seviper,_' replied Kagura. '_But you'll be facing me instead._'

'_Should be interesting for me,_' said the female Seviper as she eyed Kagura.

"Go Sparky, you're up now," said Richie as he looked to his trusty companion.

'_Don't worry Richie, leave it to me,_' said an eager Sparky as he leapt off of Richie's shoulder and took Zippo's place.

Richie recalled Zippo and the second part of the battle began.

"Seviper Poison Tail," began the drill instructor. "Fearow, use Drill Peck,"

'_Yes ma'am,_' acknowledged both Pokémon as they lunged at their intended targets. Fearow was closing in at Sparky while Seviper was going after Kagura.

"Sparky use Thunderbolt on Fearow," commanded Richie.

"Kagura use Psychic attack on Seviper," ordered Relena.

'_We're on it,_' replied both Pokémon.

"Fearow, use Mirror Move and direct it at that Froslass," countered the female drill instructor. "Seviper, use Dark Pulse on Froslass as well."

Seviper and Fearow screamed towards their intended target Fearow had had used his Mirror Move and had absorbed knowledge of Sparky's Thunderbolt and sent the Thunderbolt at Kagura unaware of Sparky's ability. As the Thunderbolt streaked towards Kagura, Sparky raised his tail up and the thunderbolt swerved towards Sparky's tail that caught the thunderbolt.

Fearow and his trainer were stunned by what just happened.

'_What just happened? Why did my copied Thunderbolt go over to that Pikachu?_' demanded Fearow.

'_Oh just a little Dream World ability called Lightningrod,_' explained Sparky. '_All electric attacks you try to use will be drawn to me and thank you for raising my Special Attack too._'

Sparky grinned and then countered back with an even more powerful Thunderbolt attack on Fearow. The Fearow could certainly feel the power from that Thunderbolt and fell in defeat with circles in his eyes. The female drill instructor gritted her teeth for a moment and then had to figure out what to do now her Fearow was knocked out.

"Seviper, continue to use your Dark Pulse on Froslass," ordered the drill instructor.

Seviper did as she was commanded and used her Dark Pulse attack on the Ice/Ghost Pokémon from Sinnoh. The attack was super effective on Kagura as she fell on her back.

'_Ngh, wasn't expecting Seviper to know that attack,_' Kagura said as she tried to pull herself back up.

'_I'm just full of surprises you'll never expect,_' Seviper said as she readied a Poison Tail attack to damage the prone Froslass.

Sparky was quick to intercept the Poison Tail with an Iron Tail of his own causing both attacks to cancel each other out.

'_That was close Kagura,_' said Sparky as he helped up his teammate.

'_I thank you for blocking that attack,_' began Kagura, '_but that Poison Tail wasn't going to do much damage to me._'

'_Yes, but you can still get poisoned by that Poison Tail_,' countered Sparky.

'_Good point,_' said Kagura as she realized that was a possibility.

'_Less talking, more fighting,_' Seviper said as she slammed a Poison Tail in between Sparky and Kagura.

Sparky was about charge at Seviper, but Kagura held out an arm to stop him.

'_This is my fight Sparky,_' Kagura informed her Pikachu partner. '_I want to face Seviper... alone._'

Sparky gave slight nod and looked to Richie who also gave a slight nod as both Richie and Sparky backed away to the side. Seviper was taken aback and narrowed her eyes at Kagura as she asked, '_Are you sure that you want to face me without your teammate?_'

'_This is between you and me,_' answered Kagura as she lunged herself at Seviper.

The exchange went back and forth as neither female Pokémon were giving an inch and Kagura couldn't keep status problem on Seviper for very long since the female Pit Snake Pokémon had the Shed Skin ability. After 20 minutes, Seviper finally fell backwards in defeat with circles in her eyes. Kagura had bruises all over her body as she was very tired and couldn't go anymore.

"Very well then," the female drill instructor said to Relena and Richie, "looks like you'll be facing the Sarge after all. I hope you two can handle being on television. Gym battles with all gym leaders in the Atlantica Islands are televised."

The couple made their way to the gym leader who was overseeing the training of all the enlistees for the Royal Tsunami Defense Forces. He turned to Richie and Relena and had a smirk on his face as he said, "I welcome you Princess Relena Kaiou and Richie Henderson, son of Rena Henderson. I hope you're ready for the fight of your life. Because I'm not gonna give you two this Ruby Sword Badge without a fight."

Back at Sol Palace, some of the adolescents were bored of their mind after facing a challenger that didn't even make it past the fifteenth oldest child, Kelsey. As they were gathered around the TV, they flipped the channel over to see that a gym battle from Ruby Island was being broadcast. Who they saw shocked them.

"Wha?! What's that little runt doing on Ruby Island?!" demanded Kelsey as she and the other siblings saw Relena and Richie.

"And who's that boy with her?" asked Samantha as she became interested.

"I dunno, but Relena's got good tastes in boys," answered Alicia, the fifth oldest daughter with a grin. "He's a cutie."

All of the other girls gave a slight nod of agreement and then glued their faces to the screen.

Elsewhere on Tsunami Island, Jessica had her eyes peeled to the TV screen to watch her baby sister take on Sgt. Goldstein. Argon and Jason were also watching with her as well.

'Come on baby sister, I know you got this one,' thought Jessica as the gym battle began.

Elsewhere in the region of Hoenn, a girl with short brown hair and sapphire blue eyes was flipping through channels while waiting for her father to be done with his interview as the Hoenn Pokémon League commission was looking for someone to replace the Petalberg City gym leader who would be retiring within the next year. The girl, whose name was May Maple happened to see the gym battle taking place in the Atlantica Islands region and was mostly fascinated as she spotted Relena challenging the local gym leader.

'I sure hope that I can meet someone like her,' thought 7 year-old May Maple as she watched the gym battle.

Back on Ruby Island, Sgt. Goldstein outlined the rules for them. Both of them would only be allowed to use three Pokémon each while he used all six of his Pokémon against them. The young couple agreed to the terms of the gym battle and a referee stood ready for the match to begin.

"Alright then, go Scratfy!" exclaimed Sgt. Goldstein as a Dark/Fighting-type Pokémon came out of the first Pokéball Sgt. Goldstein threw out.

"I'll take this one," Relena said to Richie before using a whistle to summon her first Pokémon she ever caught, her Articuno named Frost. "You ready Frost?"

'_I am always ready for battle_,' answered Frost.

"Scratfy, use Stone Edge," ordered Sgt. Goldstein.

The Scrafty complied and tried to stab Frost sharpened stones from below but Frost was able to dodge him.

"Frost, use Aerial Ace and Sky Drop," countered Relena.

The Kanto Freeze Pokémon obeyed and used his confounding speed and agility to close the gap, grab hold of Scrafty, take him in the sky and drop him to the ground. Scrafty was dealt with quickly and had circles in his eyes.

"Scrafty is unable to battle," announced the referee. "Articuno wins!"

Sgt. Goldstein recalled his Scrafty and then threw out his next Pokémon to battle. The gym leader threw out his next Pokémon and it was a Beedrill. Richie then took charge as both Relena and Richie switched when facing Sgt. Goldstein's Pokémon. The gym battle was fierce and many viewers were certainly fired up as the gym leader and the challengers were going back and forth. Relena had only one Pokémon left, Aurora, as did Richie as he was down to Sparky. Both Aurora and Sparky were victorious in knocking out the last two Pokémon that Sgt. Goldstein had. The TV commentators showed instant replays of the gym and showed each of Sgt. Goldstein's Pokémon fighting fiercely. They showed his other Pokémon that battled as well, his Toxicroak, Magmortor, Gigalith and his Rhydon.

"With this Ruby Sword Badge, your Pokémon's Physical Attack increases by 40%, allows you to go for the next badge and reveals part of the location for the seventh badge should you decide to go for the last badge," explained Sgt. Goldstein as he handed over the badge to the young couple. "In order to gain entry into the Royal Cup, you'll need either all seven badges or a Top 8 finish in the Pokémon League held at the end of the season."

Relena and Richie left the gym with their heads held high as they left Ruby Island for their next badge and more adventures in the Atlantica Islands.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and/or story elements of the Pokémon franchise. Nintendo owns everything and I'm just borrowing them for this story. The Atlantica Islands, their gym leaders and predominantly most of the characters who live their there belong to me.

_Previously:_ _"With this Ruby Sword Badge, your Pokémon's Physical Attack increases by 40%, allows you to go for the next badge and reveals part of the location for the seventh badge should you decide to go for the last badge," explained Sgt. Goldstein as he handed over the badge to the young couple. "In order to gain entry into the Royal Cup, you'll need either all seven badges or a Top 8 finish in the Pokémon League held at the end of the season."_

_Relena and Richie left the gym with their heads held high as they left Ruby Island for their next badge and more adventures in the Atlantica Islands."_

7: Magic Training and Dangerous Quest to Dark Candle Island.

Sol Palace, Tsunami Island

"Oh man that was an intense gym battle to watch!" exclaimed Angelo with enthusiasm. "Maybe Relena beating us wasn't a fluke."

"What I'd like to know is who was that boy with her. He looked like a real cutie" said Beatriz as Tsunami News Network came on and had a Breaking News story about Relena and Richie defeating Sgt. Goldstein's best Pokémon and getting the Ruby Sword Badge.

'Wow, it's hard to believe that the youngest daughter of the Tsunami Island gym leader and the son of Emerald Island's gym leader are already taking on the Pokémon world at a young age,' said TNN news anchor Tom Brokaw. 'At seven years old, I figured that they would be focused on living like most seven year-old kids their age.'

"Did you guys hear that right?" Nathaniel asked other 14 siblings as they were all plastered around the TV screen. "That boy with her is the son of Rena 'Sakura' Henderson."

"Do you think the runt knows that?" asked Francis, the 11th oldest child.

"Maybe," answered Angelo. "But let's keep an eye on her for now. Who knows, we might face her if she and her boyfriend decide to challenge the Royal Gym for the Royal Trident Badge."

"Then we better train ourselves and be ready for when she gets back to Tsunami Island.," said Samantha as she stood up and walked towards the door.

"Hey where are you going Sam?" asked Nathaniel.

"I'm going on a trip to different islands for a couple months with a few of my girlfriends," answered Samantha. "It'll be a while before any trainers manage to reach the Royal Gym."

"Do you guys think maybe we were too harsh on Relena?" asked Rachel, the fourth oldest daughter.

The siblings stood there for 20 minutes thinking about it and reflecting on the times they picked on Relena and did a few other things to her.

"Maybe a bit too harsh," answered Angelo. "She needs some help in the region and with our experience, she'll make it through the region."

"But will she accept our help?" asked Francis as she was worried that Relena would be bitter with them after they picked on her.

"That'll be up to her if she wants our help," answered Samantha as she walked by with her Abamasnow following behind her and stopped when Samantha stopped. "And I'm giving up on picking on her. It's gotten old."

"If it's gotten old, why did you keep picking on her?" asked Nathaniel.

"Because it was what you guys wanted to do," answered Samantha as she looked away and left towards the door. "I'll see you guys in a couple months. Come Abamasnow."

'_Coming,_' said Abamasnow as he carried a few things of Samantha's luggage.

Ruby Island docks.

"Where's the next gym?" Relena asked Richie.

"Amber Island," answered Richie. "I remember that Amber Island is a swamp island full of Pokémon that live in swamps and marshland. We'll be able to find Pokémon like Totodile, Ekans, Seviper and plenty of other Pokémon too."

'If I recall there are also Suicune and Darkrai that live on this island as well,' added Aurora as he had knowledge of Amber Island as well.

'Are you from Amber Island, Aurora?' asked Thor.

'No, I'm from the Trident Islands,' answered the Suicune as he gazed towards the said island thinking about someone he had been thinking about. '**I hope you haven't forgotten about me... Amelia. I miss you so much and I hope you think about me everyday.**'

Amber Island Gym

The gym leader sighed after giving another trainer a badge for defeating her. The idea of having gym battles televised throughout the Atlantica Islands was a ridiculous idea. The gym leader gathered her fallen Pokémon and took them to her special sanctuary for them. She released them from their Pokéballs and looked out to the ocean while her Pokémon lurched their way to their beds and began a well earned rest. The gym leader was very attractive and constantly had men asking for her hand in marriage. She was 5' 7", a lean and trim 139 pounds and a slender yet athletic figure. The other features that drew men to the gym leader were her flowing purple hair and red eyes that made her look as if she was a human version of the Suicune Pokémon. The gym leader's name was Amelia Skyforth and she was a skilled trainer and very fluent with Pokémon and could have a decent conversation with them. But there was something about Amelia that was mysterious. Hardly anyone knew her secret. What is it you ask? Well, you'll find out later as Amelia looked to the sea and sighed.

'Aurora, I miss you,' Amelia thought to herself. "If only that witch hadn't turned me into a human being," Amelia said loud enough for her Weavile to hear her.

'_I knew there was something off about you,_' Weavile said in his sleep and directed at his trainer. '_We'll... talk _[yawn]_ later in the morning._'

En route to Amber Island

Relena and Richie were disappointed that not many boats were heading to Amber Island. So they did the only thing they could do. Richie recalled Thor back to his Heal Ball and got on the back of his girlfriend's Pokémon bodyguard, Aurora, as they began the long trek to Amber Island.

'I still can't believe that Ginger let you ride with her,' Aurora said to Richie.

"She said that she wants no humans to ride on her back," Richie explained to Aurora. "I gotta respect what my Pokémon want."

'Fair enough,' replied Aurora as they dashed over the water instead of Aurora swimming in the water.

"Are there any islands that we could stop by on the way to Amber Island, Father?" Relena asked Aurora.

'There's Mage Island and Dark Candle Island,' answered Aurora. 'Dark Candle Island is home to mostly Ghost-type Pokémon. Rumor has it there's a treasure there guarded by a big monster... if you believe it.'

Relena chuckled at the thought of having to go to Dark Candle Island.

"I don't think that I wanna go to Dark Candle Island just yet," said Relena. "Besides I heard something about Dark Candle Island being full of high level Ghost-type Pokémon."

'Oh that would be correct," said Aurora as he recalled having to rest on Dark Candle Island a couple times. 'That's why I remained on the shore of the island,' stated Aurora. 'Once you leave the shore and head into the interior of the island, the sun starts to disappear.'

"Well let's focus on making our way to Amber Island so we can train for the next gym," suggested Relena.

"But first, I thought you might want these first," Richie said to Relena as he revealed a small bouquet of Aqua lilies. "Sparky said I should get you some flowers after the gym battle. Here are some Aqua Lilies, I hope you like them."

Relena teared up as she hugged Richie and crashed her lips into his lips. This came as a shock to Richie at first when Relena crashed her lips on to his. At first he thought the tears meant one of either two things, either it was allergies or she loved the bouquet.

"They're very beautiful Richie," answered Relena. "Can you put one of the lilies in my hair, please?"

Richie gave a slight nod as he put one of the lilies in Relena's hair and held a mirror up for his girlfriend to see the lily he put in her hair.

"How did you know that Aqua Lilies were my favorite flowers?" Relena asked Richie.

"I just guessed that they were your favorite flowers," answered Richie. "And Sparky suggested them too."

Relena had a smile on her face as she said, "You have a great companion in Sparky. He's cute and certainly can help you with the ladies."

'_Thank you Relena_,' Sparky said to his trainer's girlfriend.

Richie had a confident smile on his face as he replied, "There's only one lady I want, that is you."

'_Good answer Richie,_' added Sparky.

For four hours the young couple on Aurora's back were approaching Mage Island after receiving a mysterious invitation to go there and receive special training in which both of them were eager to receive and thought it would be Pokémon training. However, they were unaware that Relena's father Takashi and his mistress were following them. Luckily for the young couple as they were in a mile area radius of Mage Island, Takashi and his mistress were prevented from entering the island by a barrier that was set up long ago by an ancient council witches, wizards and Mismagius Pokémon. Takashi and his mistress then set course for the next island as Takashi was determined to take Michiru's favorite child away from her until she was willing to accept an open relationship and go back to giving him children... like she was supposed to do.

As the young couple entered through the barrier to Mage Island, Richie had slightly turned around to see

the boat carrying Relena's real father and his mistress changing course and heading to the next island. But he was quick to shake the encounter out of his head as Mage Island came into view.

'Alright children, Mage Island is directly ahead,' Aurora informed his passengers. 'Here is where people with special gifts for magic are given training. Normally humans who can't use magic are not allowed to approach the island and step foot on it. Pokémon are always allowed on the island.'

"That's really cool," Relena said with enthusiasm. "Do you know what kind of Pokémon are on the island, Father?"

Aurora chuckled when Relena called him her father, but answered, 'Yes there are plenty of Pokémon on Mage Island. Stantler, Togepi, Shaymin, Bravairy, Pidegot, Fearow, Sudowoodo and even Terrakion are here."

'_I thought I heard that Celebi live on Mage Island as well,_' Sparky added much to the surprise of the young couple.

'There's a reason why I did not mention Celebi, Sparky,' Aurora said to Richie's Pikachu. "Celebi here on Mage Island, only appear to those who complete their training. Even then Celebi are difficult to catch.'

"Well, if we're here to do training on the art of magic, then let's do it," Relena said cheerfully with a grin on her face. "We have plenty of time to train before we have to get the rest of our badges."

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" asked Richie as he wanted to make that stopping at Mage Island was what she wanted to do.

"Oh yeah," Relena answered as she had a beaming smile on her face. "I wanna be a master of magic even if I can't be a champion of the Atlantica Islands."

'Then it's settled,' said Aurora as he made his way to the beach, 'landfall it is.'

As Aurora headed towards the first sugar white sandy beach, two figures came out of the forest and stood at the beach where Aurora was heading for.

"So those are the two we're training to use magic and at least a sword?" the blonde-hair man asked his wife as they watched the Suicune approaching them.

"Yes Cloud," answered Aeris, the blonde-haired man's wife. "The gym leader of Tsunami Island asked for us to do this."

"I thought we were only supposed to train the youngest daughter," said Cloud.

"I know, but after Princess Michiru saw that her daughter was with the son of Rena Henderson, she insisted that he learn the same things too."

"Ah, a bodyguard," assumed Cloud.

Aeris chuckled as she brushed her long and braided brown hair to left and answered, "Something like that. But I would have to guess that she still has that male Suicune at her side as her bodyguard."

"True, but it wouldn't hurt to have another bodyguard just in case," replied Cloud.

The young couple finally got off of Aurora's back and Richie let Thor out his Heal Ball as per the deal with Aurora.

'Ugh, I was wondering when I was gonna get out to stretch and walk around,' commented Thor as he stretched his legs.

It was then the married couple approached Relena and Richie and made both Aurora and Thor tense as they stood in front of their trainers and readied to attack should the married couple decide to attack.

'Who are you?' demanded Aurora. 'Are you here to attack our trainers?'

Aeris gave a gentle smile as she answered, "No. We were asked by Princess Michiru to train your trainers in the art of magic."

"Huh, Mother asked you train me in the art of Magic?" Relena asked Aeris in surprise.

"She also wanted us to train you in wielding a sword as well," added Cloud as he was about to unsheathe his sword and got pounced on by Aurora.

"Oi, Father!" exclaimed Relena as she went to pull Aurora off of Cloud. "Father, I know you're trying to protect me, but I don't think that he was gonna try to kill me."

Aurora glared at Cloud and then lifted his paw letting Cloud go. Cloud had a sweatdrop on his head as he held his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry, I didn't think that I would get pounced on," Cloud said as he got up.

"Ahem, as we were saying," began Aeris as she cleared her throat bringing focus back to what was going down, "Princess Michiru asked us personally to train you two."

"How do you know my mother?" Relena asked Aeris.

"We were good friends before she got married to scum who called himself a prince," answered Aeris as she was bitter as she was remembering when Michiru announced that she was getting to Relena's biological father. "I warned her that he was no good."

"You're right, he was no good," Relena agreed as she had bitterness in her voice. "He expected her to keep bearing him children while he held onto his mistress."

Aeris sighed as she shook his head in disappointment, but Relena continued, "But Mom divorced him and his own family turned on him and kicked him out of the palace so he could go to his mistress."

Aeris gave a nod of approval at the last statement.

"Aurora has taken over and has become my father in place of the deadbeat baka," Relena added as she gestured to her Pokémon bodyguard at her side. "I do love Aurora as a father."

Aeris gave a beaming smile as she replied, "And he seems to be a good father to raise you as his daughter."

'Thank you for your kind words,' Aurora said to Aeris. 'But I'm sure that you would like to begin the training of both these young ones.'

Over the next couple weeks, the magic training was a bit hard for the young couple. Their teacher, Aeris had them doing small things at first as she sought to establish a sense of discipline in the young couple. Neither she nor her husband were going to train two young children that were undisciplined and too out of control. Once Aeris had seen that Richie and Relena had developed a sense of discipline, she moved on to the next phase and then allowed her husband, Cloud, to begin training them with using sword. Both teachers were reasonable and allowed their young students time to train their Pokémon and relax. Relena became more proficient with using magic then using a sword but had passable skill with the sword unlike her boyfriend Richie. Richie on the other hand was more proficient with the sword than using magic spells. But Richie gained an additional skill in channeling elemental energy into the blade of his sword; this made both Aeris and Cloud pleased to see that Richie had gained another skill useful probably in battle.

"Okay, now to complete your training," began Aeris, "you'll need to go to Dark Candle Island and retrieve a treasure of some sort."

"D-Dark Candle Island?!" asked Relena as she was in shock with what her mentor had told her and Richie to do. "But there are many Ghost-type Pokémon there. Powerful Ghost Pokémon."

"Don't worry you guys, both of us will loan you our own Pokémon," Aeris calmly assured her two young pupils. "And we'll be coming with you, but only to observe."

"Are you sure that your daughter and that tramp with her are coming here?" Takashi's mistress asked her lover, the former Prince and heir to the throne of the Atlantica Islands kingdom.

"Of course I'm sure they'll show up here," answered Takashi. "We'll take whatever it is they're after and then take my daughter away from that whore, Michiru."

The mistress gave a slight nod in agreement before noticing Litwick appearing close to her lover Takashi and sucking out a small helping of Takashi's lifeforce before disappearing. If there was one thing that Takashi's mistress knew that a shiny Litwick sucking the lifeforce out of a person meant that they were marked for death. The mistress just shook it off as she and Takashi began to climb the mountain they were climbing.

The young couple and their mentors landed on Dark Candle Island at a dock under constant supervision by Haunters and Duskulls.

'_Ah welcome back to our humble island,_' a shiny male Haunter named Gracie said to Aeris and Cloud . "I take you're here for training purposes, right?"

"Yes," answered Aeris.

'_Oh goodie,_' said a shiny Dusclops, '_Fresh meat for the grinder._'

That last comment made Relena and Richie a bit nervous, but they were going to get the treasure on Black Candle Mountain.

"Here, take these Pokémon," Aeris said as she gave Relena a one of her best Pokémon. "She's a level 75 Skitty and she's certainly proven herself in battle especially against Ghost-type Pokémon despite not having the Scrappy ability."

"Here you go my friend," Cloud said to Richie as he handed one of his Pokémon to Richie. "This is a level 75 Exploud with the Scrappy ability."

"Awesome," Richie said with a grin on his face and got Thor to notice it.

'Are you alright?' Thor asked Richie.

"Y-Yeah," answered Richie. "The Scrappy ability allows Exploud to hit Ghost-type Pokémon with Normal and Fighting-type moves."

'That is a pretty handy ability,' remarked Thor.

"Oh yeah," agreed Richie.

The small party then journeyed into the interior of Dark Candle Island encountering many different types of Ghost-type Pokémon, including even Froslass with Glalie at Lavender Pass. As the party progressed, the Ghost Pokémon got stronger and climb got more difficult. As they climbed up Black Candle Mountain, they were being followed by Takashi and his mistress... and a shiny female Litwick that was trying to mark Takashi's mistress for death as well. The climb was a lot longer than thought because of the Pokémon battles with Ghost Pokémon and retrieving many items left behind. Then the small party reached the main cave and proceeded with caution as many Litwicks and Lampents lit the way to the main chamber to where a shiny Lampent with orange eyes and lighter shade of lavender, lighter than the normal shiny Lampent.

'_Welcome treasure hunters along with their instructors in the art of magic,_' the shiny Lampent said to Relena and Richie mostly. '_You have come for our prized treasure. However you will battle me with your own Pokémon and not the Pokémon of your instructors that you borrowed._'

Aeris and Cloud relieved Relena and Richie of the Pokémon they borrowed to reach the top. The Lampent studied Relena and and Richie's Pokémon and then made himself become enveloped in dark mist for a brief few seconds.

'_I am now ready to face your strongest Pokémon,_' announced the shiny Lampent. '_Bring them forward and I shall face them._'

Aurora looked to Relena and Sparky looked to Richie and both Pokémon gave their trainers a slight nod.

'_Don't worry, we can take him,_' Sparky assured both Relena and Richie.

'We'll be fine Relena,' agreed Aurora.

"Be careful, Father," Relena said to Aurora in a worried tone. "That Lampent could have the Flame Body ability."

The battle then began as the Lampent opened up by launching two Shadow Ball attacks at Aurora and Sparky.

'_Time to put that Iron Tail attack to good use,_' Sparky said eager to try out the new Steel-type move he learned while Richie was training with him the week before.

Sparky's tail glowed and seemed to be coated with a metallic coating and then Sparky moved to slice the shadowy blob fired at him by Lampent. Aurora waited for the shadowy blob to get closer and as it got closer, he leapt up dodging with ease. The Suicune then countered with a Scald attack even though the Ghost/Fire Pokémon was not going to get burned from the secondary effect. The Lampent was hit by the Scald attack and thrown back a bit.

'_Hmm... you two might prove to be a challenge for the treasure,_' Lampent said to Aurora and Sparky.

Before the shiny Lampent could make the next attack, a beam entered the chamber which caused Aurora's paternal instincts to kick in as he tackled Relena to the ground and kept her shielded as the beam died down and a pair of unwelcome guests entered on the back of a shiny Charizard. Relena looked to see who would stop a battle for the treasure of Black Candle Mountain and glared at the both of them.

"Well done my daughter," Takashi said to his youngest daughter as mockingly clapped at her and Richie. "Now your journey and this tomfoolery is over. Your coming home with me, little girl."

Relena narrowed her eyes at Takashi and snarled, "You're not my father. You never will be my father, even though it was through you that I was born."

Aurora narrowed his eyes at the man who was cruel to Amelia and then asked, 'If you love your mistress, then don't you marry her and have children through her?'

Takashi stood there for a couple minutes thinking about Aurora's question.

"I prefer to have a mistress and a wife," Takashi answered with an evil grin. "Besides, I can still have children through a wife and a mistress."

'You make me sick,' Aurora said to Takashi. 'Have you forgotten that it's against the law for a man to have a wife and a mistress at the same time?'

"Who cares about some stupid law?" Takashi asked Aurora.

"Um... Takashi," began Takashi's mistress, "I'm pregnant with your child."

"There you go Takashi," Relena said to her 'father.' "Take your mistress and go have children with her. Leave me alone. Leave my siblings alone and most importantly... leave my mother alone."

"You will call me 'father'," Takashi tried to correct Relena.

Relena looked Takashi with a scowl on her face and then looked to Aurora before closing her eyes and said as she and Aurora got off the ground, "I already have a father and he's standing right here... next to me. Aurora's more of a father to me then you ever will be."

Takashi had heard enough and then was about to charge at his daughter until he felt searing fire hit him in the back. Takashi fell forward and surprised as he turned and saw that his shiny Houndoom had fired a Flamethrower to the back.

'_You won't lay a hand on that young girl,_' Takashi's Houndoom snarled at Takashi. '_She made her decision and you are not fit to be her father._'

"You stupid traitor!" snarled Takashi as he was ready to backhand his own Houndoom.

Before Takashi could ever strike his Houndoom, the Litwick and Lampent then took action and a few Litwick used their Psychic attack to restrain Takashi and even held him up. The mistress then tried to release one of her own Pokémon from their Pokéballs, but she too was restrained before she reach her belt clip. Three Lampents then used their power and opened a hole which lead to a dimension cover in lavender mist clouds.

'By the majesty of Arceus, what is that place?' Thor asked no one in particular.

Aurora's first reaction was to ensure his adopted daughter's safety as he wrapped his left front paw around her waist to make sure that she wouldn't get sucked into the dimension.

'It appears to be a death dimension,' Aurora answered Thor.

"What's a death dimension, Father?" Relena asked Aurora.

'I'm not sure myself,' answered Aurora. 'I've only heard about them from Ghost-type Pokémon belonging to human trainers. They never told me more about it in general.'

'_It is a dimension that we Ghost Pokémon draw our powers from_,' Kagura said as she had popped out her Heal Ball. '_Humans and Pokémon that get caught in the dimension are slowly broken down and then become the source of power that we use._'

Relena and Richie both grimaced at the thought of being sent into the death dimension. The shiny Litwick that had been tailing Takashi's mistress was about to mark her then she joined Kagura.

'_Hey, most of us Ghost Pokémon don't like that we're using the lifeforce of humans and Pokémon, but we gotta use what is given to us to use,_' the shiny Litwick said to Relena and Richie before sucking part of the mistress's lifeforce.

'_Throw him in the death dimension,_' the shiny Lampent ordered the three Litwicks holding Takashi restrained with their Psychic attack and then said to Takashi, '_Once you enter the death dimension, you will be frozen for all eternity. You will also have plenty of time to look back on your broken promises and the sins you've committed as well._'

Once the final word left the Lampent leader's mouth, the three Litwicks then pushed Takashi into the death dimension. As the three Litwicks pushed Takashi into the death dimension, he caught a glimpse of his life as it flashed through his eyes and he then saw a glimpse of his first wife as she seemed to be looking at Takashi and shook her head with a disappointed look on her face.

"MARIA!" Takashi exclaimed as he was finally sucked into the death dimension and then gone forever.

"TAKASHI! NO!" shouted Takashi's mistress as she tried to reach her hand out to him but couldn't because she was still restrained.

Once Takashi was in the death dimension, his mistress was released and forcefully driven out. However, as Takashi was blasted into the death dimension, the shiny Lampent had been exposed to what was the treasure, an oversized Dusk Stone with a lot of energy in it. The Lampent had evolved into the final evolved form known as Chandelure and had a dark red orange flame rather the orange flames that a shiny Chandelure had.

'_It seems that the battle for our prized is not necessary for you two,_' the recently evolved Chandelure said to Relena and Richie. '_Have certainly passed the test. I apologize for doing that the man who was your father young girl._'

"He was never my father," Relena said bitterly to the Chandelure. "Aurora is my father now."

'_Chandelure, that woman that was forced out of this cave was marked for death,_' the shiny female Litwick said to Chandelure. '_Now I have to track her down and complete the job myself._'

Litwick then turned to Richie and said, '_I am accompanying you so I can complete my task. This is non-negotiable, like it or not._' The female shiny Litwick then used her Psychic attack to force an empty Quick Ball to come loose off of Richie's belt loop and hit her on the head to capture her. Three shakes and confirmation click later, the shiny female Litwick became Richie's fifth Pokémon.

"Welcome aboard... Hikari," Richie said to the shiny female Litwick with a grin on his face.

Relena gave her boyfriend a smile as she knew why Richie gave his newly caught shiny Litwick the name Hikari.

Once the small party returned to Mage Island, something strange had begun to stir as soon as Relena and Richie touched the sandy beach. Richie and Relena then noticed a group of green and pink fairy-like Pokémon that had suddenly appeared and were interacting with other Pokémon living on Mage Island. Many Mismagus, Raticate, Houndooms, Ludicolo, Lucario and all their pre-evolved forms lived on Mage Island along with the various water Pokémon that lived in the warm waters and underwater ruins a mile to the northeast of Mage Island.

'There are the Celebi Pokémon, dear children,' Aurora said to Relena and Richie as both young trainers got off of Aurora's back. 'They only appear after someone returns from the quest on Dark Candle Island.'

'Don't expect Celebi to be easily caught,' added Thor as he got of his Heal Ball himself.

Richie had a smirk as he knew what Pokémon he was going to use.

"Alright Hikari, let's go catch us a Celebi to add to our team of Pokémon," Richie said with enthusiasm.

'_Hikari... doesn't that name mean 'radiance'?_' Hikari asked Richie.

"Yeah, it does," Richie answered the shiny Candle Pokémon. "My mother told me had I been born a girl, she would've named me Hikari and told me that it meant 'radiance'."

Hikari gave a slight nod and said, '_Well then, let us use our radiance and hopefully capture a Celebi._'

Relena had a smile on her face as she looked through her own Pokémon to see which one would help her capture an elusive shiny Celebi. She looked through her Pokémon and made her choice as she plucked one of her three Cherish Balls, a Cherish Ball with a sticker of a green mirror indicating that she chose Michiru, her shiny Gardevoir.

"Okay Michiru, we're going after a shiny Celebi," Relena informed her Psychic Pokémon partner for this trek. "Can I count on you for your assistance?"

'_You can always count on me Relena,_' the shiny Embrace Pokémon assured her young trainer.

Relena and Richie looked at each other and then came up with a plan.

"Okay, we'll meet back here on beach later in the evening," Relena said to Richie. "But let's set up our camp first."

"There's no need for that," Aeris said to Relena and Richie as she showed that Cloud already had the camp set up by a couple of his Pokémon while they were on Dark Candle Island.

Relena had a sly smirk on her face as she looked at Richie and had an all too familiar idea that made Richie uncomfortable. Richie met Relena's sly smirk with an uneasy gaze and a sweatdrop on the back of his forehead.

"Um... now Relena," began Richie as he slowly moved backwards unintentionally towards the ocean, "don't look at me like that. I know what you wanna do and I don't wanna do it again."

Relena had her arms poised and ready to grab her boyfriend.

"Come here Richie," Relena said to her boyfriend in sweet and cute tone.

Richie however shook his head tried to bolt into the forest but was tackled to the sandy beach by Relena. Thor, Aurora and Michiru all had sweatdrops on their foreheads as Richie got pulled towards the tent they were staying in for the night as she wanted to change into her swimsuit with Richie doing the same thing too. Richie looked to the three Pokémon who had sweatdrops on their foreheads with pleading eyes and then looked to Aurora and said, "You're Relena's father, do something. I'm begging you to help me, please."

Aurora then stepped in and said, 'Relena, let him go. He doesn't want to change swimsuits with you today.'

"But Father," protested Relena.

'No buts,' Aurora said firmly as he set his left front paw on Relena's right shoulder. 'Let him go.'

Relena sighed in defeat and let Richie go and then went in the tent to change into her swimsuit as she wanted to swim later after catching the Celebi she wanted. Richie was already in the forest looking for any Celebi that he and Hikari could come across.

'_Your girlfriend is kinda weird, boy,_' Hikari said to Richie.

"My name is Richie Henderson," Richie said to the shiny Litwick. "Please don't forget that."

'_Ha ha, I won't forget it Richie,_' replied Hikari. '_You do prefer to be called by your first name, right?_'

"Yes please," answered Richie as they proceeded into the forest and found a regular Celebi. "Alright a Celebi. Time to try and capture it with out having to battle it."

Richie readied a Quick Ball and threw it at the regular Celebi and caught by surprise as it was sucked into the Quick Ball. The Celebi broke out of the Quick Ball with one shake and threw it back at Richie.

'_Do you honestly think that I'll be that easy to catch human boy?_' asked the Celebi that broke out of the Quick Ball.

A battle then ensued between the Celebi and Hikari ensued as both Pokémon clashed with each other.

Relena had remained on the beach as she had heard from a few Celebi that she and Kagura had defeated that a shiny Celebi stayed along the beach and was bound to approach the beach area where she and Richie were staying at with their teachers. She also learned that the shiny Celebi had a love for a strange kind of music and it made it him or her dance. Relena then pulled out her iPhone and a mini stereo and began to play Electronic, Remix and even Trance music as she then laid on her beach towel and decided to get a tan as part of her plan to catch the elusive shiny Celebi. Aeris and Cloud were interested yet confused how Relena was gonna catch the shiny Celebi lying on her beach towel and getting a tan.

"It's easy, the sound of my music will draw the shiny Celebi and he or she'll be unable to resist the music playing," explained Relena as she laid on the towel and started to tan herself.

"That's... uh..." said Cloud trying to find the right words.

"An interesting tactic," finished Aeris. "But I think I could do some tanning too."

Aeris then went to her's and her husband's tent to change into her own swimsuit and grabbed her own beach towel. Once she changed, Aeris joined Relena in tanning herself. Aeris looked to Relena's iPhone and gave a slight nod before lying on her beach towel.

"Nice choice of music," Aeris said to her pupil. "I hope your plan works to catch the shiny Celebi."

"Me too," agreed Relena.

Thirty minutes into tanning herself, a female shiny Celebi got curious when she heard the Trance music playing on the mini stereo. She then began dance a little bit much to the dismay of her friend as the friend knew about her weakness to the strange music that humans played when they came to Mage Island. The shiny Celebi was certainly drawn to the music and approached the music playing.

'_Wait, don't go. It's a trap!_' exclaimed the shiny Celebi's friend.

The shiny Celebi didn't listen as she was drawn to the music approached the music playing. The tune that got the shiny Celebi dancing was a Trance song and really her dancing with joy.

[Trance – Again and Again URL: www. youtube watch?v=FkzICCru13I]

Relena spotted the shiny Celebi and kept a wary eye on her as she came closer and was dancing to the Trance music like the rumors she heard. The shiny Celebi was joyfully dancing but caught a glimpse of Relena tanning herself and a shiny female Gardevoir laying on the sand and soaking up as much of the sun as she could. The shiny Celebi kept dancing to her heart's content but didn't notice Relena chucking a Quick Ball at her as she was dancing at first.

"Gotcha Celebi, you're mine now," Relena said in a confident tone and thinking that she caught the shiny Celebi.

But the Celebi broke out of the Quick Ball and then made a motion to bring on the battle and was very confident that she could win the battle like every other battle against the humans that tried to capture her before.

'_Time to see if your Pokémon can rock a beat against me in battle,_' the shiny Celebi said to Relena as she motioned for Michiru to battle her.

'_Time for me to prove that I've got beat to dance to,_' Michiru said to herself and Relena as she took a fighting stance.

The shiny Celebi was first to make a move as she unleashed Magical Leaf on Michiru. Relena's shiny Gardevoir countered with her own Magical Leaf attack and effectively canceling out both attacks. Michiru then took advantage of the dust and then used her recently learned Signal Beam attack and struck the shiny female Celebi in the chest as it did double damage because it was a Grass/Psychic-type Pokémon. Both Pokémon seemed to be evenly matched as both ladies exchanged blows with each other and were a brink of collapsing from the blows exchanged and Michiru certainly didn't like getting hit with a Solarbeam attack at pointblank range. The female shiny Celebi wasn't too keen on the Shadow Sneak from behind or the Signal Beam that hit her in the back at pointblank range in retaliation for the Solarbeam at pointblank range.

'_H-Ha-Have you ha-had en-en-enough Gardevoir?_' asked an shiny Celebi as she huffed and puffed.

'_I-I co-could a-ask you t-the s-same th-thing,_' countered Michiru.

Relena then saw her opportunity and then readied another Heal Ball and threw it at the weary shiny Celebi .

"Now you're mine Celebi," Relena said to the now worn down Time Traveling Pokémon.

The shiny Celebi saw the Heal Ball coming at her and she tried to side step it but was too weary to evade it and was sucked into the Heal Ball. After nine shakes of the Heal Ball, the shiny Celebi was finally caught.

"Alright!" Relena exclaimed with joy before hugging her worn out Embrace Pokémon. "Thank you Michiru. Thank you so much."

'_You're welcome Relena,_' replied Michiru before she collapsed on her beach towel.

Richie and Hikari returned with disappointed looks on their faces.

"I can't believe that those Celebi got away from us," Richie said with a disappointed scowl on his face.

'_I could've used my used Flame Body ability if you not told me to dodge those Aerial Ace attacks,_' Hikari said to Richie. '_They would've used up their Lum berries and __**then**__ I could've used my Flamethrower attack to inflict another burn on them._'

"It still doesn't help the fact that we failed to catch a Celebi," Richie said to his recently captured shiny Litwick.

'_You seriously need to come up with better strategies,_' Sparky said to his trainer. '_We Pokémon have various abilities and powers that can be used against other Pokémon._'

Richie gave a sigh and nodded to Sparky. He then saw Relena tanning with Michiru and her teacher were laying on their beach towels and tanning themselves.

"Richie, you should go change into your trunks after a hard day of training and catching a Celebi," Relena said to her boyfriend as she looked to him with a gentle smile on her face.

'_Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in capturing a Celebi,_' Hikari said to Relena as she gave Richie a slight glare.

'_He tried hard to catch a Celebi but it just wasn't day today,_' added Sparky. '_But he'll become a good trainer once he learns somethings about __Pokémon__ abilities. You could learn some things about them too you know._'

Relena gave Sparky a slight nod and then motioned for him to go into their tent and change anyway as she wanted to swim with Richie. She didn't care that Richie failed to catch a Celebi, all that mattered to her is that he did his best and that they take on the Atlantica Islands Pokémon League together. She wasn't gonna ask anymore from him. Richie gave a slight nod to acknowledge his girlfriend's request and went to change as he wanted to go swimming anyway.

Later in the evening, Aeris looked to her's and Cloud's pupils and asked, "Are you two sure you wanna proceed to Amber Island?"

"Yeah," answered Richie. "We're going after all the badges. I think there are only six badges to gain entry in the Atlantica Islands."

"Seven badges," corrected Cloud. "There are seven badges. The seventh badge, though, is hard to obtain. Yet once you get the seventh badge, it'll give you automatic entry into the Royal Cup."

Relena and Richie looked at each other, eyes filled with determination and gave each other a slight nod as they silently came to an agreement.

"Any chance you know where the seventh gym is?" Relena asked Aeris.

"Or what to expect for the last gym?" asked Richie as he too wanted to know anything else about the the last gym.

"Sorry, but we can't tell you guys anything about the seventh gym," answered Aeris. "But we can tell you that the next gym holds the Amber Spear Badge and next portion of a map to locate the seventh gym."

"Eh? A map to the seventh gym?" asked Relena as she was confused by what Aeris said by gym.

"Sorry, but you'll have to figure it out yourself," answered Aeris before checking her watch. "Now it's time for you two to go to bed. Good night you two."

They young couple fell asleep in their tent with arms around each others waist and laying their heads on Aurora's stomach as a pillow. The next day was a new day for them and they needed to be ready to rise and shine for their next stop, Amber Island.


End file.
